00:00People are obsessed with originality, but they have this image that originality is something fixed, whereas actually originality is a
00:09process.
00:10So we're much more interested in authenticity than we are with originality.
00:16I mean, you and I both look at each other and look at yourself in the mirror in the morning,
00:21and you know you don't look like you did when you were 18 or when you were 6.
00:26So things change, paintings change, restoration changes things.
00:31So factum never touches the original object.
00:35So we have great respect for originality, but we equally have respect for the conditions under which you must see
00:42something.
00:43So if you have an original object but you can't see it, you might as well put it somewhere in
00:49safe storage where it can be looked after until people have the ability to see it properly.
00:55But really what we do is we focus and we really care about not changing the evidence that that original
01:03object holds.
01:04So we believe in originality very strongly.
01:07So it's one of the reasons why we started in Egypt, because in the Valley of the Kings, the tombs
01:13in Egypt were built to last for eternity.
01:16That's part of their message.
01:17But they were never built to be visited.
01:19So every visitor who goes to visit one of the tombs contributes to their destruction.
01:25So it's a very selfish act, as well as wanting to go and wanting to see.
01:31But we created for the Ministry of Antiquities a complete facsimile of the tomb of Tutankhamen, which is absolutely identical
01:40to the original.
01:41And it's there in the entrance to the Valley of the Kings.
01:43And we've spent years trying to change the attitude of tourists, of visitors, to say, you really need to experience
01:52this.
01:53You need to see it and know it.
01:55But please contribute to its preservation rather than contributing to its destruction.
02:01So you'll have a better experience.
02:07Tourists are a very pervasive force that destroy just, they're like, you know, hordes of ants that just, or locusts,
02:14and just things go.
02:16So how do you have a great experience?
02:18You know, when I was 18 or 20, I could go to the Prado and it was empty.
02:24And you can sit and look at pictures and you could talk to the people there and it was amazing.
02:28And objects come alive when they're shared and discussed.
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