Pierre Lacau the excavator all the rest. Lacau oversaw the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 by the English archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon in the Valley of the Kings. Relations with Carter were rarely cordial and were exacerbated by both the monopoly of publication rights which Lord Carnarvon sold to "The Times", and pressure from the Egyptian government who resented the lack of Egyptian involvement in the Tutankhamen excavation. In 1924 Lacau, acting under the orders of the new Minister of Public Works, forbade the wives of Howard Carter's team to enter the tomb. Carter closed the tomb
Exhibitions of artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the exhibition on March 29, 1972. More than 30,000 people visited in its first week. By September, 800,000 had been to the exhibition, and its duration was extended by three months because of the popularity. When it did close on December 31, 1972, 1.6 million visitors had passed through the exhibition doors. All profits (£600,000) were donated to UNESCO for conserving the temples at Philae, Egypt. "Treasures of Tutankhamun" was the most popular exhibition in the museum's history. It is considered a landmark achievement in Egypt–United Kingdom relations. The exhibition moved on to other countries,