Exhibitions: Tutankhamania

Paris has Pharaonic fever—all because of 45 objects from the tomb of Egypt's boy king, Tutankhamen (circa 1358 B.C.), which recently began a four-month stay at the Petit Palais. The event is hardly news: King Tut's tomb was discovered in 1922. But ever since the exhibition opened, Parisians waiting to get in have jammed the Avenue Churchill with serpentine lines five bodies thick.

Such official visitors as 91-year-old Konrad Adenauer have had to wait until 10 p.m. for private tours. French newspapers and magazines are filled with articles on "The Short and Pathetic...