KUCHING: Sarawak is set to host a major international exhibition featuring artefacts and actual human remains dating back over 5,000 years from the National Archaeological Museum of Florence, Italy, next year.
Sarawak Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the exclusive six-month exhibition, titled 'Egyptian Mummies: Journey Towards Immortality', will be held at the Borneo Cultures Museum (BCM) starting July next year.
"This is a first for Southeast Asia. Collaborations between museums for exhibitions of this kind usually take a long time.
"Because it's already difficult to bring in the exhibits and if you want to do it for a month, it's a loss. So we will do it for six months, and it will be a totally new attraction to locals," he said in a press conference after winding up the debate for his ministry at the Sarawak state legislative assembly sitting today.
He said the Sarawak Museum Department's success in bringing in such a global-scale exhibition demonstrates the agency's capability and proactive approach in establishing strategic collaborations with world-renowned museums.
Meanwhile, in his winding up speech, Abdul Karim highlighted that Sarawak's overall tourism sector has staged a remarkable growth trajectory, recording 3.52 million visitor arrivals and generating RM9 billion in tourism receipts between January and September 2026.
"Asean remains our major market, with Brunei and Indonesia accounting for 46.5 per cent of visitors, while Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand also contributed significantly to our visitor arrivals," he said.
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