THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION coming to the Royal Ontario Museum in June of 2009 has gotten a lot of press today. From the ArtDaily:

Premier McGuinty Announces the Dead Sea Scrolls at the ROM

TORONTO.- Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty today announced that the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) will present the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition, one of the most important exhibitions in the Museum’s history, from Saturday, June 27, 2009 until Sunday, January 3, 2010. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for ROM visitors to view these historical treasures, the subject of great scholarly and public interest, as well as heated debate and controversy, since their discovery over 60 years ago. A collaboration of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and the ROM, Dead Sea Scrolls, the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of these materials ever assembled in Canada, will be on display in the ROM’s Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall on level B2 in the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.

Premier McGuinty said, “I want to congratulate the ROM for bringing this compelling exhibition to Toronto. It is a great opportunity for visitors and it will attract people to the city from all over North America. That's good for the ROM, it's good for Toronto and good for the economy."

[...]

The ROM will display 16 authentic Dead Sea Scrolls during the six month engagement—eight different scrolls for each three-month period—including fragments from the books of Genesis, Deuteronomy and Psalms as well as the sectarian Community Rule, War Scroll and Messianic Apocalypse. Five fragments, never before publicly displayed, are being conserved especially for the ROM. All scrolls will be presented with full interpretations, translations and background information.

Also showcased will be artifacts from Khirbet Qumran, the ancient site closest to where the scrolls were discovered, in addition to unique pieces from Jerusalem during the period of the Second Temple. Visitors will learn about the fascinating discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, their academic and biblical significance, as well as the period in history in which they were written. Objects from the ROM’s own collections will complement the display, providing additional context to life in ancient Judea almost 2,000 years ago.

There's also a nice picture of the Psalms scroll from Cave 11 (11Q5).

According to the National Post, the ROM CEO has high hopes for attendance:

The exhibition — which ROM CEO William Thorsell prefers to call a “project” to emphasize its cross-provincial community outreach and educational aspects — is being billed as the biggest Dead Sea Scrolls event ever to come to this country.

In an interview following yesterday’s announcement, Thorsell acknowledged his hope that the Scrolls will roll attendance numbers upwards at the country’s largest museum. Toronto Life magazine reported in its September issue that the ROM’s $135-million Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, which opened in June, 2007, has not drawn as many new visitors as hoped, falling well short of goals as high as 1.65-million people per year.

Thorsell said the ROM is on track for one million visitors in the year ending next March 31.

“We’re looking for 200,000 to 300,000 extra visitors on top of that” to be lured in by the Scrolls, he said, adding that the museum has a longer-term target to stabilize at 1.3- to 1.4-million annually “with or without so-called blockbusters,” such as the Scrolls exhibition.

I hope they do well. In the past, DSS exhibits have consistently exceeded attendance targets.

There is also coverage in the Toronto Star and CBCNews.ca.