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Milwaukee is one of only four cities in the United States chosen to host the National Geographic Society exhibit Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt, which may be one of the grandest exhibitions the museum has ever hosted. Two colossal statues depicting a king and queen, each weighing more than five tons and towering nearly 17 feet over onlookers, are the centerpieces of the exhibit. Like many of the exhibit's artifacts, they were uncovered in the 1990s by French underwater explorer Franck Goddio. While searching for a shipwreck, he found a lost city from Cleopatra's time. The exhibit also draws from the excavations of Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former minister of antiquities, whose search for the tomb of Cleopatra and her Roman lover, Mark Antony, didn't turn up the bodies but did unearth relics that reference the last queen of ancient Egypt. The exhibition runs through April 29, 2012.
