Egypt is to submit a formal request for the return of the iconic bust of Queen Nefertiti, now on display at the Neues Museum in Berlin, Nevine El-Aref reports It seems that the dispute over the 3,500-year- old bust of one of Egypt's most beautiful queens is far from over, and on the contrary is moving from one difficult phase to another. It was expected that Sunday's meeting between Friederike Seyfried, director of the Aegyptisches Museum und Papyrussammiung in Berlin and Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), would put an end to the increasingly acrimonious arguments over the bust. Instead, the discussions have entered a more complicated phase. The key documentation held by the museum in Berlin concerning this iconic piece and presented by Seyfried confirms Egypt's contention that archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt, the bust's excavator, did act unethically with intent to deceive in order to keep the bust in the German share of his discovered artefacts. This relates to the protocol of 20 January 1913 written by French archaeologist Gustave Lefèvre, the official who signed the division of finds on behalf of the Egyptian Antiquities Service at the time, and excerpts from the diary of Borchardt. Hawass pointed out that the limestone head of the queen was listed on the protocol as a painted plaster bust of a princess. Borchardt knew, as his diary shows, that this was the queen herself; but he also knew well that the head was of limestone covered with plaster and painted, not simply of plaster, as this was clearly visible through inspection of the piece itself. "It seems that there was an agreement between Borchardt and Lefèvre that all the plaster pieces [which included an important group of plaster masks of the royal family at Amarna] would go to Berlin, and this appears to have been one way that Borchardt misled Lefèvre to ensure that the bust would go to Berlin as well," Hawass told Al-Ahram Weekly. Hawass asserts that Borchardt intended to deceive the antiquities authorities in order to keep the bust by including it in the German share. When he returned to Germany he even went so far as to hide the bust for 10 years until it appeared as the centerpiece of Berlin's Neues Museum in 1923. Egypt then asked for its restitution, but for unknown reasons the attempt failed despite the fact that Egypt offered a substitute. As director of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, Seyfried does not have the authority to approve the return of the head to Egypt or even take any decision towards such an issue, but she will act as a liaison between Hawass and the relevant German officials. The full authority rests with Hermann Parzinger, president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, and Bernd Neumann, minister of state for culture. Based on the information currently in the possession of the SCA, Hawass this week called for an urgent meeting of the National Committee for the Return of Stolen Artefacts, which will then make a formal request for the return of the bust of Nefertiti. Since it went on display in 1923, more than a decade after it was unearthed in the workshop of the sculptor Tuthmose at Tel Al-Amarna in 1912, the magnificent painted stucco and lime bust of Queen Nefertiti has become an iconic image of ancient Egyptian art. The bust depicts the queen, whose name means "the beautiful has arrived", with full red lips, a graceful elongated neck decorated with the vibrant colours of a necklace, and a tall, flat topped crown which contrasts with the sepia tone of her smooth skin. Although one of the bust's inlaid crystal eyes is missing both eyelids and brows are outlined in black. How Germany acquired the bust has long been the subject of controversy. Most recently, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported that the German Oriental Association (DOG) had discovered a 1924 document purporting to show that Borchardt used trickery to smuggle the bust to Germany. At the time the article appeared, the German government was celebrating the official opening of the Neues Museum, with Nefertiti as the centerpiece. In 2003 a curatorial decision was made, and two Hungarian artists were allowed to fuse the ancient bust onto a contemporary bronze- cast body for a few hours in an attempt to visualise what Nefertiti's body might have looked like. The dispute between Egypt and Germany over the bust blew up in 2005 when Hawass, speaking at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin, called for the return of five ancient Egyptian pieces on display abroad. The objects in question were the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum in London; the bust of Nefertiti in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin; the statue of the Great Pyramid by architect Hemiunnu in the Roemer-Pelizaeus Museum in Hilesheim; the Dendara Temple Zodiac in the Louvre in Paris; and the bust of the Khafre Pyramid-builder Ankhaf in the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. The dispute took a more serious turn when Hawass renewed his call in 2006 during his speech at the opening of Egypt's sunken treasure exhibition in Berlin, where he spoke before presidents Hosni Mubarak and Horst Köhler. The following year the two countries squabbled over the bust when Hawass asked for it to be loaned for three months for the 2012 opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking the Giza Pyramids. The German minister of culture rejected the request, saying experts had reservations about the viability of transporting the bust such a distance. Hawass was not satisfied, pointing out that the bust had been moved several times between German museums. Now, after they submit the documents that condemn Borchardt and show that the bust was deceitfully taken out of Egypt, together with Egypt's request for its return, what will be the final outcome is anybody's guess.
