>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
>FACTS REGARDING CONTROVERSIAL ART COLLECTION
>MADE AVAILABLE TO PUBLIC VIA INTERNET
>
>The Mansoor Amarna Corporation Invites The Public To Witness Scholarly
>Debate Regarding Authenticity of Ancient Egyptian Art
>
>
>(LOS ANGELES, CA)  August 1, 1997  --  The public can now make up
>it's own mind regarding the controversial Mansoor Amarna Collection
>of rare Egyptian art. All scientific and scholarly reports regarding
>the Collection are now available via the Internet, along with an
>on-line exhibit featuring photos of the pieces.  Egyptophiles, art
>lovers, scholars, historians and the simply curious can visit the
>site at http://www.amarna.com.
>
>The Mansoor Amarna Collection is an assemblage of rare artifacts and
>sculptures dating from the Amarna Period of Akhenaton and Nefertiti
>(circa 1350 B.C.) collected in Egypt during the 1920's, 1930's and
>1940's by the late antiquarian M. A. Mansoor.
>
>The debate surrounding the art is regarding the authenticity of the
>Collection.  During the last fifty years, more than twenty
>internationally renowned Egyptologists and scientists, including Fred
>H. Stross, Ph.D. (Guest Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National
>Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley), Christiane
>Desroches Noblecourt, Ph.D., (Inspector General of the Museums of
>France; Special Consultant to UNESCO for Egyptian Antiquities) and the
>late Canon Etienne Drioton, Ph.D. (Director General, Department of
>Antiquities, Egypt) have examined the pieces and verified their
>authenticity. The controversy surrounding the Collection began in 1949
>when a museum official from the Boston Museum of Fine Art rejected the
>pieces as forgeries.  Since then, the art world has been unable to
>come to an agreement as to the authenticity of the Collection.
>
>Pieces of the Mansoor Amarna Collection are included in the permanent
>collections of the Louvre, the Vatican Egyptian Museum, the Denver Art
>Museum, the Becker-Colonna Egyptian Gallery at San Francisco State
>University and several private collections in Europe and the United
>States.
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred Mansoor, Secretary
Mansoor Amarna Corporation
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http://www.amarna.com