January 1, 2010

Egypt to make formal request for return of Nefertiti bust

Posted at 6:52 pm in Similar cases

Egypt is continuing their efforts to secure the return of the Nefertiti bust from Germany with a planned formal request.

From:
Independent Online (Zaire)

Cairo ready to demand the return of Nefertiti
December 21 2009 at 02:59AM
By Marwa Awad

Cairo – Egypt will formally ask Germany to return a bust of Queen Nefertiti after a Berlin museum official presented papers showing the 3 400-year-old treasure was taken unethically, Egypt’s antiquities chief said on Sunday.

Zahi Hawass said in a statement that documents presented by the head of Berlin’s Neues Museum confirmed that Ludwig Borchardt, who found the bust, tried to pass it off as a less significant find to secure it for Berlin.

With almond-shaped eyes and a swan-like neck, Nefertiti has caused a rift between Egypt and Germany, each intent on having the bust that draws millions of visitors from around the world.

“These materials confirm Egypt’s contention that Borchardt did act unethically, with intent to deceive: the limestone head of the queen is listed on the protocol as a painted plaster bust of a princess,” the statement said.

Friederike Seyfried, director of the Egyptian Papyrus Collection at Berlin’s Neues Museum, where the bust is on display, will liaise between Hawass and German officials to resolve the dispute over the artifact, it added.

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which runs the German museum, could not be reached for comment.

But in a statement on December 18, it denied that Seyfried was meeting Hawass to negotiate the bust’s return, saying the documents proved the Prussian state acquired the bust lawfully and Egypt had no legal claim to it.

Objects were registered precisely, and outstanding finds such as Nefertiti were photographed in a way that reflected their beauty and quality, the foundation said.

“The cases stood open for appraisal,” it added. “There can be no talk of deception.”

Hawass told Reuters he was upbeat about the prospects for the bust’s return and would call a meeting of the National Committee for the Return of Stolen Artifacts to make the formal request this week.

“I am always optimistic,” he said. “I always ask for artifacts to come and it always happens.”

Hawass’s push to repatriate the bust is among the priorities of a campaign for the return of pharaonic treasures including the Rosetta Stone, now in the British Museum, that Egypt says were plundered by a succession of foreign powers.

The bust of Nefertiti was found in Egypt in 1912 at Tell el-Amarna, the short-lived capital of Nefertiti’s husband, the 18th dynasty Pharaoh Akhenaten, and shipped to Germany in 1913. – Reuters

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 19:14 GMT, Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Germany refuses to return Nefertiti bust to Egypt

German officials have ruled out returning an ancient bust of Queen Nefertiti to Egypt – saying it is too fragile to be transported.

And they have insisted that the bust was acquired legally by the Prussian state nearly a century ago.

Egypt first requested the return of the antiquity in 1930, but successive German governments have refused.

Head of antiquities Zahi Hawass says the bust was smuggled out of Egypt by a German archaeologist in 1913.

Mr Hawass claims the archaeologist, Ludwig Borchardt, disguised its true value by covering it in a coating of clay.

Great beauty

The 3,300-year-old bust is the star attraction of the Egyptian collection at the Neues Museum in Berlin.

The collection’s director, Friederike Seyfried, said: “The position of the German side is clear and unambiguous – the acquisition of the bust by the Prussian state was legal.”

Queen Nefertiti is renowned as one of ancient history’s great beauties.

She was the wife of Pharaoh Akhenaton – who initiated a new religion which involved worshipping the sun.

Egypt has been aggressively campaigning for the return of ancient artefacts, and last week secured the repatriation of fragments of a 3,200-year-old tomb from the Louvre.

Earlier this month Mr Hawass said he would drop a similar demand for the permanent return of the Rosetta Stone if the British Museum agreed to loan it.

The stone is a basalt slab dating back to 196 BC which was key to the modern deciphering of hieroglyphics.

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