Waste of the Day: Throwback Thursday – 3-D Mummies Stop By

Topline: In a true embrace of the 21^st Century, the federal government made sure its questionable spending at the Milwaukee Public Museum in 2011 was available in 3-D.

3-D mummies? Seriously?

A $24,632 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities paid for “Mummies of the World” — 150 human and animal mummies on display — including a holographic rendering of an ancient mummy, available to the public in Milwaukee for five months.

That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses.

Coburn, the legendary U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname “Dr. No” by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. Projects that he couldn’t stop, Coburn included in his oversight reports.   

Coburn’s Wastebook 2011 included 100 examples of outrageous spending worth nearly $7 billion, including that spent on a glimpse of Egyptian tombs — which would be worth $36,409 today.

Key facts: The museum’s “Mummies of the World” exhibit featured a “3-D high-definition, full color true holographic or holographic-like exhibit of a virtual mummy unwrapping.” Experts in medical imaging, mummy CT analysis and 3-D rendering were needed for the project.

The exhibit included mummies from plenty of other countries besides Egypt. Images of the Detmold Child, a 4,500-year-old baby from Peru, were on display, as was the 5,300-year-old Otzi the Iceman from Italy.

Even though taxpayers funded the exhibit, visitors still had to pay up to $24.50 for admission.

An exhibit available for five months only

The traveling exhibit was only in Milwaukee from December 2010 to May 2011. However, the museum already had two Egyptian mummies that had been on display since 1887.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Summary: Best to leave mummies in the past if they cost $25,000 and are on display for 124 fewer years than their counterparts.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.