Modern Masters

To Live ForeverEgyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum

Edward Bleiberg. With an essay by Kathlyn M. Cooney

Published by GILES in association with the Brooklyn Museum

To Live Forever - Book cover

To Live Forever - Double page spread

Publish Date — June 2008 (UK and USA)

Dimensions — 152 pages, 279mm x 216mm (8 ½ x 11 in.), portrait

Illustrations — 130 colour and 12 b&w illustrations

Hardback price — UK£20.00/US$39.95

ISBN — 1-904832-52-0

ISBN — 978-1-904832-52-2

Book Details (pdf) — Live_Forever_AI.pdf

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Press Release — Original look at the ancient Egyptian fascination

Sales Points

“In his reader-friendly visual and writing style, this author draws the curtain back on a fascinating area of ancient Egyptian society” Henry Berry online

“A thorough discussion of Egyptian theology and the process of preparing a corpse for the afterlife” Berkshire Fine Arts

With its illuminating visual comparisons across different economic levels, this book adds a new dimension to our experience of ancient Egypt.

About the Book

This new book draws on over 120 ancient Egyptian monuments from the world-renowned collection of the Brooklyn Museum to illustrate Egyptian strategies for defeating death and living forever. In answering the questions at the core of the public’s fascination with ancient Egypt, and explaining Egyptian beliefs about death and the afterlife, author Edward Bleiberg offers a fresh take on the subject by addressing the practical, economic considerations an ancient Egyptian faced when preparing for the next life.

Kathlyn M. Cooney breaks new ground in her essay, entitled How Much Did a Coffin Cost?, by addressing such pragmatic questions as the price of a coffin in relation to average salaries, and how the costs of different colours of paint affected decisions about coffin decoration. She shows the ancient Egyptians as ordinary people with problems and desires often similar to those of people today.

Publication accompanies a major national touring exhibition in the USA which began in July 2008 through 2011


About the Author(s)

Edward Bleiberg has been a curator of Egyptian art at the Brooklyn Museum since 1998. He was formerly the Director of the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the University of Memphis from 1989 to 1998. He has curated the exhibitions Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt: A Family Archive from the Nile Valley; Tree of Paradise: Jewish Mosaics from the Roman Empire; and Pharaohs, Queens, and Goddesses. He is the author of The Official Gift in Ancient Egypt (1996), Ancient Egypt, 2615−332 B.C.E. (2001), Arts and Humanities through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2004), and the catalogues accompanying Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt, and Tree of Paradise. Kathlyn Cooney is Research Associate at the Getty Research Institute in LosAngeles. She has taught at Stanford, UCLA, and Howard University. She was co-curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs in 2005. In 2002, she was Kress fellow at the National Gallery of Art, where she was involved with the installation of the Cairo Museum exhibition Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt. Her first book, The Cost of Death: The Social and Economic Value of Ancient Egyptian Funerary Art in the Ramesside Period, was published in 2007.