Met Museum Places Giacometti Sculptures Inside Ancient Egyptian Temple of Dendur

Key facts

• Exhibition "Giacometti in the Temple of Dendur" runs June 12–September 8 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
• Fourteen sculptures are on loan from the Fondation Giacometti in Paris, with three additional works from the Met's collection.
• The installation places Giacometti's Walking Woman (I) (1932) inside the Temple of Dendur's offering hall.
• The Temple of Dendur is a 1st-century B.C.E. structure dedicated to the goddess Isis and the deified brothers Pedesi and Pihor.
• The exhibition involves curators from multiple departments and follows the 2024 show "Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876–Now."
• The project informs the museum's $550-million Tang Wing renovation for Modern and Contemporary art.
• The Temple of Dendur was awarded to the Met in 1967 after lobbying by director Thomas Hoving and opened to the public in 1978.
• Giacometti had an early interest in Egyptian art, studying it in publications and at the Louvre.