Egypt to demand return of Nefertiti bust from Germany

The Egyptian government requested Nefertiti's return as early as 19 Ten years later, Germany agreed to hand it over, but then Adolf nixed the deal.Back in 2007, Germany refused to lend the statue to Egypt on the grounds that it was too fragile.He died in 19 Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, is slated to meet with Egypt's National Committee for the Return of Stolen Artifacts this week and will then formally ask for the return of the bust.

The council says the diary of Ludwig Borchardt, who unearthed the priceless piece in 1912, shows that he knew it was a bust of the pharaonic-era queen but instead listed it simply as a plaster bust of a princess.The request is bound to stir up old battles.The Cairo-based Supreme Council of Antiquities says it has uncovered evidence that the archeologist who discovered the 3,400-year-old bust deliberately misled Egyptian officials about its true value, according to Bloomberg News.Borchardt, who founded the German Archeological Institute in Cairo in 1907, made a name for himself after finding Nerfertiti's bust.Egyptian authorities say they will demand the return of a bust of Queen Nefertiti from Berlin's Neue Museum.

Egyptian and German Officials to Meet About Nefertiti Bust

the main article by By DAVE ITZKOFF :

Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s antiquities council, said that a meeting planned in Egypt on Dec.The bust of Nefertiti, the wife of the pharaoh Akhenaten, is currently on display at the Neues Museum in Berlin; it was discovered by the German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt in 1912, who said he had Egyptian approval to take it.Hawass also said that the Berlin museum official would make the case “that the statue left Egypt through legal channels.

Westerwelle says Nefertiti stays in Berlin

This was not mentioned by Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Abdul Gheit during the meeting with Westerwelle.Even Gheit could not hide his frustration at the situation where he said the greater part of Egyptian history is reflected in objects which are in European or American museums.Hawass and many Egyptians say his predecessors, who chose the collection of artefacts which did not include the Nefertiti bust, were conned by the Germans.It is “in the interest of human cultural heritage” that it not be put at risk, he said during a visit to Cairo on Saturday.Egyptian calls for the bust to be returned have increased recently, while it has been re-housed in Berlin’s Neues Museum, forming the centrepiece of the Egyptian collection in the German capital.

Westerwelle concentrated on the argument that the bust, said to be more than 3,000 years old, could be damaged if moved.We will reach a settlement which is satisfactory for both sides,” said Gheit.It was among a number of artefacts excavated by archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt in 1912 – the artefacts were split into two groups and the Egyptians offered the choice of which ones to keep.Zahi Hawass, Egyptian head of antiquities, has repeatedly warned that he intends to submit an official bid for the statue to be returned.There is also the desire in Egypt among my countrymen to learn about their history first hand,” he said.Westerwelle is then scheduled to visit Jordan and Syria to discuss the same matter with leaders there.

Calling the Queen's Authenticity into Question

the main article  by By Christoph Seidler :

Borchardt, rather than exposing the naiveté of his royal guests, elected to keep the truth to himself.Of course they copied her.Museum visitors can look over the shoulders of specialists to see how the secrets of these old artifacts are revealed using infrared spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence and microscopy.

A bit of wax was allegedly found in Nefertiti's right eye.One might think that the debate is superfluous -- that the matter could be settled simply by testing the bust's age.

Despite such doubts, Stierlin refuses to back down.A sign next to the lab workers reads "Questions Welcome.He says that when Johann Georg, a Saxon duke, visited the tomb in the Egyptian city of Amarna, they were immediately taken by the beauty of the bust.That, though, is a difficult prospect.The piece, which bears inventory tag number 21300, is one of the most famous pieces of art from ancient Egypt.Until then, one could only see Nefertiti as she was depicted on bas reliefs," Stierlin told SPIEGEL ONLINE.At the Altes Museum on Berlin's Museum Island, a brief film runs in a silent loop on a monitor.

Borchardt wanted to see her in three dimensions.As to whether Nefertiti is a fake, I can't say for sure," says Ari Hartog, the curator of the Gerhard Marcks Haus, an art museum in Bremen devoted to the works of the famous 20th century German sculptor.At the same time, though, his employers have a clear interest in disproving Stierlin's theory.If the Nefertiti bust is indeed fake, says Hartog, "it's definitely not something made by Marcks.It was obtained in 1920 by Friedrich Rathgen, the chemist who first directed the laboratory that now bears his name.And Henri Stierlin, 

a Geneva-based author, certainly does have a few questions.That's an epistemological problem," Stefan Simon told SPIEGEL ONLINE.Simon is a material scientist who directs the Rathgen Research Laboratory, which belongs to the association of national museums in Berlin.The Nefertiti bust itself is only a few steps away.Stierlin's theory has been lent credence by the fact that Borchardt's expedition included someone named Marcks.Still, the wax sample's path from the bust's eye to the laboratory was long.Stierlin is interested in the Nefertiti copy, 

and he's not referring to the white model of the bust shown in the film flickering across the monitor.You Can Prove A Fake, But Not An Original Dietrich Wildung, the curator of the Berlin's Egyptian Museum -- and a long-time friend of Stierlin -- is even more emphatic in his dismissal of Stierlin's ideas.When it was carbon-dated a few years back, scientists concluded that might be more than 3,300 years old.The monitor is part of a current display at the museum, one which includes four work stations set up in a large, glass cubicle to show just how complex conserving great works of ancient art is.His suspicions run deeper.For decades,

people have marvelled at the bust of Nefertiti.Museum scientists are eager to prove these theories wrong, but the mysterious statue might not be ready to reveal her secrets yet.Hartog, though, says it was most likely the artist's brother.Radiocarbon (C-14) dating measures the decay of radioactive carbon isotopes, necessitating samples of organic material.

As a scientist, Simon's main allegiance is to the evidence.Unfortunately it's not so simple.In a recently published book, Stierlin claims that Berlin's famous Nefertiti bust -- one of the prides of the city's world-class collection of museums -- is actually a fake.For decades, Rathgen's sample lay in a small specimen bag in the museum before finally being dated, opening the door to doubt.It's dishonest to display this object when you know it's not authentic," Stierlin insists.We would not put an even remotely questionable object on display for 700,000 visitors to see every year," Wildung says.You can prove a fake, but you can't prove originals.

And its further complicated by the fact that, the closer one considers the Nefertiti bust, the clearer it becomes that very little is known about it.Nefertiti, though, is largely free of such material.It shows laboratory workers handling a replica of the Nefertiti bust built to test a new portable base for it.Art historians have their doubts about this theory.You can see it clear as day.Stierlin claims that Ludwig Borchardt, the leader of the excavation that found Nefertiti,

had the sculptor Gerhard Marcks make the bust in 1912 to serve as a display piece for a necklace that had recently been unearthed.And in recent weeks, its authenticity has been the subject of much debate.Now, some scholars say it's a fake -- made to hold a necklace.Stierlin's theory sounds exciting -- and it has proven adept at generating headlines.

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nefertiti bust locked into the new Berlin museum

That among the Egyptian monuments which the recent controversy around the house, the bust of Queen Nefertiti, Germany, Germany, which it asserts that he was transferred to the knowledge and consent of Egypt, when the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr.. Zahi Hawass, recently, he is personally convinced that the statue in 1913 left Egypt illegally.

The Secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, Dr.. Zahi Hawass, the site e-magazine "Der Spiegel" the German, that is examining the many things on the statue currently in the German capital Berlin, stressing that this research will see whether the statue was left Egypt in a legitimate manner, saying: "There will be no problem if it is proved that."

Hawass also said to Asharq Al Awsat that he was forming a committee to uncover all the circumstances of the statue, and the Committee will establish a set of documents stands for the truth of what happened during the discovery process of the statue, pointing out that what the committee will be the basis of the results, which will be acting on it thereafter .

He added that the evidence regarding the departure of the statue from Egypt in 1912 with a German archaeologist, Borchardt, who discovered the statue will be ready within two weeks.

Where is the evidence on the legality of his release?

[Nefertiti]
Nefertiti
Although officials in Berlin stressed several times that this statue was transferred to Germany with the knowledge and consent of the Egyptian authorities and that they have evidence for that, Hawass has revealed that he had made a request to officials in Berlin two months ago for disclosure of evidence that confirm the legitimacy of the transfer of the statue, but he did not received no response to this request so far, and this had not met the invitation to attend the opening ceremony of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin the day before yesterday and was transferred to the bust of Nefertiti.

After the rejection of the German side asked Hawass borrow the statue to be displayed in the Grand Egyptian Museum, Hawass said he had heard that German authorities have classified the issue of allowing the bust to Egypt for the risk they questioned the possibility that the statue is made from Egyptian limestone then to Berlin and calling it Palmkhozi.

Transfer the statue of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin

The re-opening of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin the day before yesterday, which was conveyed to him the bust of Nefertiti, after it was closed 70 years ago, after it was destroyed in World War II, attended the opening ceremony, which missed the senses despite his invitation, the German chancellor and the mayor of Berlin and a number of cultural figures German.

[Nefertiti]
Nefertiti
And after that continues to work on re-engineered the old restored by about 7 years and the German government has allocated for the operations and re-restored antiques for about 213 million euros and up to the area about 8 thousand square meters divided on 4 floors.

The museum is located, which was established between the years 1843 and 1855 in the Museum Island in central German capital and called the new museum to be built along the city such as museums, the Museum of Ancient and Islamic Art Museum and the Museum of the Middle Ages.

The museum was established by the Prussian caesarean section contains about 700 thousand artifacts dating to the times of the pharaohs who ruled Egypt and the Romans and the civilization of Babylon, and Mesopotamia and other civilizations immemorial in human history and civilizations of the Umayyads in the East, Andalusia, Muslim civilization in Sicily "Italy" was the distribution of these pieces on the Museum Island even re-building the Berlin Museum.


The bust of Nefertiti
He had moved the bust of Queen Nefertiti, the pharaonic, estimated age of more than 3300 years, Ooil this month, to the German capital Berlin, in a glass cage of a height of four meters, an event that received the attention of various media and political and cultural circles in the world.

The statue was made of stone Sheedy had lived in the old museum on Museum Island in central Berlin for 70 years to return under the tight security measures to where they came from the new Egyptian Museum which is situated opposite the old museum, which was restored recently, and had resided in the town (Celinh Cacciaroda ) in the area (Alharts) German North in 1943 until 1956 when it was put in the old museum in Berlin.


The Queen Nefertiti was the wife of Akhenaten major, who ruled ancient Egypt in 1350 BC.

The archaeologist, Ludwig Borchardt discovered Nefertiti's bust during the excavation of the effects in 1912 and moved with him to Germany, some reports indicate that Borchardt had deceived the Egyptians at the time to remove the bust of Nefertiti from the country, where the statue escaped the full (non-scarified) to his home in the neighborhood Zamalek, Cairo, and from there he fled to Germany is hidden within the broken pottery pieces are of no value, sent to Berlin for restoration.

To be mentioned that the statue has seen widespread demand after being transferred to its new headquarters in the new museum in Berlin the day before yesterday, where hundreds of people lined in a queue waiting for a long day in front of the museum.

Scores and was keen to gather in front of the museum to book their places until hours before the opening, as was the case on Saturday as well.

It was about eight thousand people had flocked to the Museum Island in Berlin on Saturday.

Queen Nefertiti


The bust of Nefertiti
And Queen Nefertiti, whose name means "beautiful come" is the wife of King Amenhotep IV (who later became Akhenaten) Eighteenth Dynasty Pharaoh famous and the protectors of Tutankhamun.

It is believed that Nefertiti was the sister of King Akhenaten and their mother is the Queen Tiye, and Mrdatha was the wife of the minister any who is likely to be a brother of Queen Tiye, was called in many times, "Abu God."

Queen Nefertiti, her husband took part in the worship of the new religion, a worship of the Aten sun disk and the power she and her husband, the mediator between the people and Aten, Nefertiti and the first years of the rule of her husband to change her name to change its ideology, according to Nfrnfraton Aten Nefertiti, which means shines as the beautiful may come from.

A statue of Nefertiti in the Egyptian Museum of quartzite and red decorated with touches of ink which is at least in the accuracy of manufacture of the head in Berlin, but less known.

Nefertiti property titles and the Great Royal Wife, Nefertiti gave birth to six girls Akhenaten: Meritaten was born in Thebes before moving on to the sister of Aten, Aten MCAT, Ankhs The BAINS Luton, who married Tutankhamun Invernfro Aten indicative Invernfro Ra, The step-Re.

After the twelfth year of the rule of Akhenaten Nefertiti disappeared There was no mention of them believed she died and was buried in a cemetery Bikhittatun also believed to be Tutankhamun's mummy transfer with his father, Akhenaten abandoned when the sister of the Aten.