[Remarkably, given his Mubarak ties, Mr. Hawass has been able to hold on to his government post through the aftershocks of the revolution, though he resigned briefly in March and was reinstated. He travels a lot, serving as a cultural ambassador, praising the revolution and urging foreigners to visit Egypt. This month Peru honored him for his help in securing the return of artifacts that had been taken from Machu Picchu nearly a century ago.]
By Kate Taylor
Until recently Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s antiquities minister, was a global symbol of
Egyptian national pride. A famous archaeologist in an Indiana Jones hat, he was
virtually unassailable in the old Egypt, protected by his success in boosting
tourism, his efforts to reclaim lost artifacts and his closeness to the
country’s first lady, Suzanne Mubarak.
But the revolution
changed all that.
Now demonstrators in
Cairo are calling for his resignation as the interim government faces
disaffected crowds in Tahrir Square.
Their primary complaint
is his association with the Mubaraks, whom he defended in the early days of the
revolution. But the upheaval has also drawn attention to the ways he has
increased his profile over the years, often with the help of organizations and
companies with which he has done business as a government official.
He receives, for
example, an honorarium each year of as much as $200,000 from National
Geographic to be an explorer-in-residence even
as he controls access to the ancient sites it often features in its reports.
He has relationships —
albeit ones he says he does not profit from — with two American companies that
do business in Egypt.
One, Arts and
Exhibitions International, secured Mr. Hawass’s permission several years ago to
take some of the country’s most precious treasures, the artifacts of King Tut,
on a world tour; its top executives recently started a separate venture to
market a Zahi Hawass line of clothing.
A second company,
Exhibit Merchandising, has been selling replicas of Mr. Hawass’s hat for
several years. Last year that company was hired to operate a new store in the
Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Mr. Hawass says his
share of the profits from those products goes directly to Egyptian charities.
But the fact that both charities, a children’s cancer hospital and a children’s
museum, were overseen by Ms. Mubarak before the revolution has angered some
critics.
“We don’t know how
Egyptians lived all this time under this government or under these people,”
said Entessar Gharieb, a radio announcer with a degree in archaeology who
helped organize a recent protest calling for Mr. Hawass’s removal. “Zahi Hawass
was one of this system, the system of Hosni Mubarak.”
Remarkably, given his
Mubarak ties, Mr. Hawass has been able to hold on to his government post
through the aftershocks of the revolution, though he resigned briefly in March
and was reinstated. He travels a lot,
serving as a cultural ambassador, praising the revolution and urging foreigners
to visit Egypt. This month Peru honored him for his help in securing the return
of artifacts that had been taken from Machu Picchu nearly a century ago.
“You can feel the energy
in the air when he speaks to people about Egypt,” said John Norman, the
president of Arts and Exhibitions International, which runs the Tut tour.
Nonetheless, Mr. Hawass
remains dogged at home by unflattering reports in newspapers and on television.
The gift shop at the Egyptian Museum had to be closed after a dispute over how
the contract was awarded threatened to land him in jail. And critics have gone
to Egyptian prosecutors with complaints about Mr. Hawass’s relationship with
National Geographic and other matters.
“I have never done
anything at all contrary to Egyptian law,” Mr. Hawass said in an e-mail
response to questions. “Egyptian law permits government employees to accept
honoraria and fees through outside contracts.”
The accusations against
Mr. Hawass are much less serious than those made against other former government
officials, but they show how quickly the landscape has tilted.
“I think he’s going to
have to realize that there is a new way of doing business, or at least there
may be,” said Michael C. Dunn, the editor of The Middle East Journal, a
scholarly publication.
National Geographic
first brought Mr. Hawass on as an explorer-in-residence, one of 16 it has
around the world, in 2001 when he was director of the Giza pyramids. He has
appeared in numerous National Geographic films about ancient Egypt, and the organization
publishes some of his books and arranges his speaking engagements, for which he
asks $15,000.
It is not clear how the
National Geographic payments compare in size to Mr. Hawass’s government salary,
which he would not disclose. National Geographic says it pays Mr. Hawass to
advise it on major discoveries and help shape its policies on antiquities
issues. It says it has never received preferential access to archaeological
sites or discoveries.
Mr. Hawass said his
impartiality was evident when the Discovery Channel won out over National
Geographic in a bid to make films about DNA research on royal mummies.
“All proposals about
films go before a committee,” he said in an e-mail, “and decisions are made to
maximize both the scientific results and the profit for Egypt.”
But Mr. Hawass also said
this week that he has decided to resign temporarily as a National Geographic
explorer so that he can focus on protecting antiquities.
Mr. Hawass’s
relationship with Arts and Exhibitions International dates back to 2003, when
it approached him about staging a tour of Tutankhamen artifacts. Two Tut
exhibitions organized by the company have traveled to 15 cities so far.
By the time the tours
end in 2013, they will have brought Egypt close to $100 million, much more than
the country reaped from the first United States tour of Tut artifacts in the
1970s, the organizers say.
Under the contract with
Egypt, the organizers also donated $2 million to what was then known as the
Suzanne Mubarak Children’s Museum, according to Mr. Norman, the president of
Arts and Exhibitions International.
Mr. Norman said there is
no connection between the Hawass clothing line, which he is producing under a
separate venture, Adventure Clothing, and the Tut tour, which was negotiated
years earlier. The clothing, he said, is just an effort on Mr. Hawass’s part
“to leverage his image to benefit Egypt, which to me seems like a good thing.”
Mr. Hawass said his
share of any profits will go to the Children’s Cancer Hospital in Cairo.
Mr. Norman started
Exhibit Merchandising in 2004 to run the souvenir shops for the Tut
exhibitions, but he and his partners sold the company in 2007. It continues to
make the Hawass hat and run the Tut souvenir shops.
Mr. Hawass has said the
hats have raised about $500,000 for charity, a figure that Exhibit
Merchandising characterized as too high.
Last year, when Egypt
looked to open the new, larger souvenir store at the Egyptian Museum, Mr.
Hawass’s agency awarded the contract to a state-owned entity that then hired
Exhibit Merchandising to run the store.
The award was challenged
in court by the operator of a bookstore, Farid Atiya, who said he had hoped to
compete but had been unfairly excluded from the bidding.
“These were the days
before Mubarak fell,” he said in an interview, “and they were behaving as
though power would stay forever with them.”
The court found that Mr.
Atiya had been treated unfairly and ordered the contract rebid. Last April an
Egyptian criminal court sentenced Mr. Hawass to a year in prison for defying
that court order, but Mr. Hawass appealed and closed the new museum store. His
sentence was lifted and a new contract will be awarded.
Curt Bechdel, a vice
president with Exhibit Merchandising, said that Egyptian officials wanted his
company because they were familiar with the Tut exhibit shops and they “wanted
a well-run, Western approach to retail,” rather than something like Mr. Atiya’s
store, which he characterized as less sophisticated.
“The fact that we sold
his hat had nothing to do with” the award, added Mr. Bechdel, who said his
company had no direct role in the bidding.
On Monday, Prime
Minister Essam Sharaf of Egypt said he planned to replace several ministers
this week. It was not clear whether Mr. Hawass will be among them.
“I’m starting to really
feel that he has 10 lives, more than cats,” said Randa Baligh, an archaeologist
at Mansoura University north of Cairo.
Mr. Hawass said he
agreed to resume his position in March only after the interim government
assured him that it would work to protect Egyptian monuments.
“I am not an elected
official,” he said in an e-mail, “so the question of public support is not
relevant to my position.”
“I am not a politician,”
he added. “I am an archaeologist.”
Amr Emam contributed reporting from Cairo.
