Prior to the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition, antiquities rarely travelled. Most often, displays remained at the museum where the antiquities were held. Between 1961 and 1978, objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun toured in an unprecedented global exhibition. The aim was to raise funds for UNESCO’s International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia. The sites were threatened by Nasser’s developmentalist project, the Aswan Dam. The campaign marked UNESCO largest project to safeguard human and world heritage. In this paper I argue that the early exhibitions of the 1960s provide a framework of international aid in exchange for Egyptian heritage. These exchanges were less overtly ‘diplomatic’ in character and yet perform an essential function in understanding how the newly decolonized UAR (Egypt) operated in the international sphere. I contend that Egypt laid claim over the antiquities as their “sovereign right”. This undermined UNESCO rhetoric that heritage and cultural sites were part of a “common trust”. Instead, Minister of Antiquities, Sarwat Okasha directly negotiated with international museum programmers and governments, thereby maintaining “national trust” over objects. This process was far more significant than simply allowing heritage to ‘visit’ the US in return for funds to the UNESCO campaign. The exhibit was the first step in the ‘gifting’ of large ancient heritage sites to the West. International archeological and scientific committees at work in Nubia would be granted significant finds after an assessment and approval by the UAR. In 1965, Egypt ‘gifted’ the Dendur Temple to the US in thanks for its financial, scientific and archeological support of the Nubia campaign. I argue that this process ensured Egypt’s claim to “sovereign rights” over antiquities whilst simultaneously establishing a framework for economic and political determination.