A curious curatorial decision at the Egyptian National Museum in Berlin has resulted in an outpouring of Egyptian anger. Nevine El-Aref reports An exquisite painted limestone bust of Tel-Amarna queen Nefertiti has been on display in solitary, stunningly dramatic surroundings at the Egyptian National Museum and Papyrus Collection in Berlin since 1924. That was the case until last week, when -- in a highly curious curatorial decision -- the museum decided to fuse the ancient bust onto a contemporary bronze cast body created by two Hungarian artists. Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni described the resulting display as "an act of sabotage". Hosni told Al- Ahram Weekly that such a "reckless, irresponsible and unethical action" demanded efforts be taken to stop it. "The bronze body poses a real threat to the limestone bust. For one thing, the limestone bust might be too heavy a load for the body, and it could fall and break to pieces. Coming into contact with the materials used to make the body will also speed up the bust's erosion process." Hosni said he had "already contacted Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, calling on him to hold talks with Germany aiming to reverse this action, which shows a complete disregard for Egyptian, international and UNESCO laws concerning the protection of cultural heritage". He also sent urgent protest letters to UNESCO's general director and the German ambassador in Cairo. Hosni said that because Egypt and Germany enjoyed strong, stable diplomatic relations, and had cooperated on both the archaeological and economical fronts, Egypt would not be requesting the recovery of the bust unless the museum did not respond to its calls to remove the bust from the statue. In that case, Hosni said, "Egypt will demand the bust's recovery because the museum would have proven that it was not a good guardian and protector of Egyptian heritage." According to Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Secretary-General Zahi Hawass, the bust was illegally smuggled out of the country by a German archaeological mission which took advantage of the practice at the time of splitting the spoils of any new discovery between the Egyptian antiquities authority and the foreign mission. Hawass also said that according to documents in the SCA's possession, the Berlin museum's director, Dietrich Wildung, is involved in buying a number of illegally smuggled antiquities, as well as dealing with antiquities traders. "When he was the director of the Munich museum, he purchased a collection of Middle Kingdom royal bronze statues, stolen in 1985 via an illegal excavation of an archaeological area in Fayoum. All these documents will be sent to the Interpol in order to take all legal procedures against him as well as to return these statues back to their homeland," Hawass said. Hawass said the Nefertiti bust issue would not affect the SCA's archaeological cooperation with all the German archaeological missions working in Egypt, but that "we will be requesting their help in exerting pressure on the museum's director to stop this scandal". Speaking to the Weekly, Hawass said he was "shocked by this disgraceful farce, an insult to Egypt's heritage, that also threatens the safety of the bust and disrespects this influential Amarna period queen." Gunter Dreyer, director of the German Archaeological Institute, pointed out that the bronze torso was not actually nude but depicted wearing a gown like the ancient statue of Nefertiti. Dreyer said the institute was not involved in the matter, its only connection with the Berlin Museum being scientific research, rather than "science fiction. Germany is very aware of the value of the Nefertiti bust, which it has always protected and preserved over the last century," Dreyer said. As the Weekly went to press, the Museum had failed to respond to phone calls and e-mails regarding the issue. Strangely enough, the Internet announcement published by the Berlin museum to celebrate the event has been removed from the Web. The Weekly did, however, speak by phone with Egypt's ambassador to Germany, Mohamed El-Orabi, who had met Wildung to discuss the issue. El-Orabi said Wildung described the placement of Nefertiti's bust atop a bronze torso as a temporary promotional exercise. Wildung told El- Orabi that the two Hungarian artists who sculpted the body meant it as an imaginative model of Nefertiti's physical beauty, based on an actual statue in the Berlin Museum. He said the bronze body -- by itself -- would be exhibited temporarily at the Venice Biennale. Back in Cairo, Mahmoud Mabrouk, who heads the SCA's museums department, said the incident was "unprecedented", and that it had broken international laws regarding museums not adding their own touches to authentic objects in order to better preserve their historical identity and credibility. Mabrouk -- whose PhD was on the Amarna period -- said "sculpting a bronze body to complete a limestone head was aesthetically unacceptable". Mabrouk said Egypt should call for the bust's return because, unfortunately, the Berlin Museum proved that it was not a good guardian. In 1933, the Egyptian government demanded that the Nefertiti bust -- which was on display in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum -- be returned, but Hitler, who was an ardent Nefertiti fan, refused, claiming he would never relinquish the queen's head. Ali Radwan, former dean of Cairo University's Faculty of Archaeology, wondered how an Egyptologist like Wildung -- who is well aware of the bust's value, and of the fact that it isn't a broken part of a larger statue, and that it stands by itself -- could do something like this. "Is it some kind of revenge against the accusations about him stealing antiquities?" wondered Radwan. According to Mohamed Saleh, director of the Egyptology unit at the Grand Egyptian Museum, this was not the first time that Wildung had tampered with Egyptian heritage. "As director of the Munich Museum, he hung up a huge poster of the very same famous Nefertiti bust on the museum's front door with the words, "The Museum is closed on Monday," printed on the bust's iconic vacant eye. Saleh said the bust-bronze stunt was Wildung's "way of attracting more visitors to the Berlin museum which he directs, as well as a way of getting his name back in the news again after refusing in 1986 to return Akhenaton's sarcophagus, which he had bought from a Swiss smuggler, back to Egypt. Egypt finally recovered it two years ago." Ambassador El-Orabi told the Weekly he had visited the museum and seen that the famous bust was back in its original showcase, dignified as always. "In my opinion," El-Orabi said, "Wildung let his imagination drift too far."
