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Roger the Rigger
by Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio
December 3, 2002

Roger Machin, fine arts rigging expert, right, supervises placement of 5,700 pound Lion of Amenhotep III, a 3,500-year-old red granite sculpture part of the Eternal Egypt exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. (MPR Photo/Dan Olson)

Some very large and fragile pieces of ancient Egyptian art have arrived in Minnesota. They're part of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts new exhibit, "Eternal Egypt" which opens later this month. The exhibit's 144 treasures include massive and irreplaceable granite sculptures. Moving them requires the deft touch of a rigger and a mighty big elevator.

Minneapolis, Minn. — Roger Machin moves priceless pieces of fine art. The former steelworker's 12-year-old Chicago-based company is called Methods and Materials. Machin says the method used in this MIA gallery, is unchanged from when the lion was sculpted nearly 4,000 years ago.

"Basically the old rope and pulley method, but using chains instead," he says.

	Striding Figure of Meryrahashtef

Machin leads a six-member team. The fashionably bald, black t-shirt- and blue jeans-wearing rigger scampers around running chains under the Lion of Amenhotep III. The seven-and-a-half-foot-long granite cat rests on an elaborate traveling pedestal. The riggers push a steel gantry topped with four orange pulleys into place over the reclining feline.

They hoist away lifting the two-and-a-half-ton sculpture three feet into the air. The base is rolled into place. The lion is lowered. There's some polite pushing and pulling with Machin offering a running commentary to his audience, a gaggle of museum and media gawkers.

"When you're not around we use sledge hammers," he tells them.

Within half an hour, the the lion, save for some bunting and lighting for dramatic effect, is ready for viewing.

Uneventful. Could do it blindfolded, Machin says. Except for Kansas City. When the Eternal Egypt show pulled into KC, the museum's elevator proved too whimpy to handle the load. Machin says there was only one way in.

"Basically swing the lion in through the front doors," he says.

Machin and his crew case museums before anything is moved. Doors, ceilings and floors are checked for clearance and strength. He makes hefting multi-ton pieces of priceless granite look effortless. However, in Minneapolis, unlike Kansas City, Machin had a huge helper -- the Institute's monster elevator. The Institute's lift is big enough for a marching band.

	Lion of Amenhotep III Reinscribed for Tutankhamun

Roger Machin is anything but bored with the pleasantly uneventful eight-city Eternal Egypt tour. However, it's clear the British Museum and the American Federation of Arts sponsored exhibition is hardly a test of his mettle. Elaborate travel crates protect all 144 treasures, even the two-and-a-half-ton granite lion. Nothing like Machin's biggest move.

"It was a 125-ton sculpture in Chicago for the University of Illinois," he says.

Then, there was the 15-foot diameter metal sphere. A planetarium hired Machin, a trained sculptor, to move the object used to project the heavens onto it's ceiling. One problem. The planetarium door's were too narrow, and there wasn't enough money to cut a hole in the roof and drop it in.

"Because we were a bunch of artists we came up with this wacky idea" to cut the sphere into pieces. "We made a wooden stretcher, attached the whole thing with 500 feet of Velcro, cut it into section, carried it down the stairs and put it back together in the new museum with 4,000 rivets."

Where, as far as Machin knows, the sphere is still accurately portraying the universe to this day.

Nothing like that, the British Museum will be happy to know, has been needed for the show Eternal Egypt. It opens Dec. 21 at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

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