Out of the Sand: Ancient Egypt Rediscovered

Out of the Sand: Ancient Egypt Rediscovered brings together antiquities, works on paper and early photography to examine the art and material culture of ancient Egypt, as well as its later study and documentation. About Out of the Sand: Ancient Egypt Rediscovered is a major exhibition bringing together ancient Egyptian artefacts with nineteenth- and early twentieth-century paintings, drawings, rare books and photographs to examine how Egypt was made, buried, recovered and repeatedly reimagined. Opening on 7 September and on view through 17 November 2026, the exhibition spans some four millennia and sets objects made by ancient Egyptian hands beside the works produced by later artists, travellers, scholars and photographers who sought to record and interpret the civilisation they encountered. The exhibition takes its title from the recurring history of Egypt's rediscovery. Egypt was never lost to the Egyptians, yet for successive outside cultures it was found and found again: by Rome after the conquest of Cleopatra's kingdom; by Napoleon's scholars and engineers following the campaign of 1798; by nineteenth-century excavators, painters and photographers; and by the modern museum. Each generation claimed access to the ‘real’ Egypt while revealing its own ideals, ambitions and ways of seeing. At the centre of the exhibition is a group of ancient works dating from the Middle Kingdom to the Roman Imperial period, while the second part of the show follows the visual recovery of Egypt by European artists and image-makers. By bringing antiquities into direct dialogue with paintings, printed surveys and early photographs, Out of the Sand examines not only the enduring legacy of ancient Egypt, but the history of looking at it. The exhibition does not propose a final or neutral image of Egypt. Instead, it shows how every act of recording is also an act of interpretation, and how a civilisation designed to be remembered has continued to generate new visions of itself across centuries. Out of the Sand forms part of Colnaghi's broader Oriental Art Department programme and its commitment to bringing cultures into dialogue. Read more Toggle Photography Sculpture Painting Drawing