Did Germany Cheat To Get Bust Of Nefertiti?-UPDATES & EGYPT'S REACTION

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DPA
Berlin's most treasured museum exhibit

-- the bust of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti.


The Egyptian Museum in Berlin is concerned that it may face fresh demands from Egypt that it return the world-famous bust of Queen Nefertiti following the emergence of new information on how Germany got the priceless ancient artwork.









                                            Did Germany Cheat to Get Bust of Nefertiti?






SpiegelOnLine
Feb. 10, 2009

A secret document has emerged claiming that German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt may have misled Egyptian officials into letting him take the world-famous bust of Nefertiti to Germany in 1913, SPIEGEL reports.

SPIEGEL has seen the contents of a document written in 1924 in which the secretary of the German Oriental Company (DOG) gave an account of a meeting on Jan. 20, 1913 between a senior Egyptian official and German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt, who found the bust during a dig in 1912.

The secretary had been present at the meeting which was called to divide up the spoils of the dig between Germany and Egypt on a 50-50 basis. Borchardt, the witness noted, "wanted to save the bust for us" and to that end presented a photograph that didn't show Nefertiti in her best light.

The bust lay already wrapped up in a box in a dimly lit room when Egypt's chief antiques inspector, Gustave Lefebre, perused the various artifacts found in the excavation. It's unclear whether Lefebre went to the trouble of lifting the bust out of the box. In order to further mislead the inspector, Borchardt claimed the figure was made of gypsum, when in fact it's made of a limestone core under a layer of stucco.

 The witness concluded that there had been "cheating" regarding the material the bust was made of.

The German Oriental Society confirmed the existence of the document but maintains that the finds of the archaeological dig were divided up fairly.

"Nefertiti was at the top of the exchange list. The inspector could have looked at everything closely at the time," a spokesman for the society said. "It's not admissible to complain about the deal reached at the time."

Egypt has repeatedly demanded the return of the Egyptian beauty, which is seen by 500,000 visitors in Berlin each year.



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FROM ANOTHER ARTICLE:


                                   EGYPT AND GERMANY FIGHT OVER NEFERTITI


                                      Beauty of the Nile Trapped on the Spree






By Andrew Curry
SpiegelOnLine
5/10/07

The diplomatic row between Germany and Egypt over the 3,400-year-old bust of the beautiful Queen Nefertiti is heating up. Berlin's refusal to allow her to travel is "unacceptable" says Cairo.

She may be a 3,400-year-old foreigner, but she is still one of Berlin’s best-known beauties. Her delicate features adorn posters all over town; there’s an entire calendar devoted to her entrancing image; and thousands flock to the city’s museum island each day just to catch a glimpse of her. Now, Egypt wants her back.

Queen Nefertiti’s bust has been the jewel of the Berlin museum system since it was first put on display in 1923 -- and the German capital is unwilling to part with the temptress. Last month, when Egyptian authorities asked to borrow the sculpture for three months, German authorities turned them down, saying the sculpture was too fragile to travel. The response was immediate -- and outraged.

“We will make the lives of these museums miserable,” Zahi Hawass, the flamboyant director of the Egypt’s Supreme Council for Antiquities, threatened in April. “It will be a scientific war.”

Hawass stepped up his campaign last week, asking five other museums in Germany, Great Britain, France and the US to loan iconic Egyptian artifacts -- including the British Museum’s Rosetta Stone and the Zodiac in the Louvre -- for the opening of Egypt’s National Museum in 2011.

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Nothing special



Perhaps not coincidentally, the objects are all on a wish list of objects that Hawass would like to see permanently returned to Egypt -- an index he has made public on numerous occasions. Like the Nefertiti bust, which was discovered in late 1912 by German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt, most made their way out of Egypt in a time when antiquities laws were flexible at best. According to legend, the Ottoman authorities didn’t think Borchardt’s find was anything special at the time and let him ship her out of the country without a fuss.

But it’s no secret that Egypt has been regretting that decision for a century. And this isn’t the first time Egypt has expressed interest in her return. She was even dangled by Nazi honcho Hermann Göring as a reward for the Egyptian king’s allegiance in the 1930s, an offer that was personally retracted by Adolf Hitler himself -- the Führer had declared her a personal favorite.

Hawass has publicly suggested that Nefertiti was taken from Egypt under questionable circumstances. Because of her significance to Egyptian culture and history, he has encouraged the Egyptian government to press for her permanent return.

“The bust is Egyptian. She belongs to the Egyptian culture and people,” Egypt’s ambassador to Berlin, Mohamed Al-Orabi, told SPIEGEL ONLINE last week. “Nefertiti has spent 95 years here, and we expect some appreciation. It’s unacceptable to receive this denial.”

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Unprecedented level of detail



Queen Nefertiti's beauty was widely renowned during her time as co-ruler of Egypt in the 14th century B.C. Indeed, her name means "the beautiful woman has come." While many suspect that she may have been the mother-in-law of her successor Tutahkhamun, little is known about the circumstances surrounding her death and burial. The bust was found in the ruins of court sculptor Thutmose's workshop.

German authorities insist their ownership of Nefertiti is irreproachable -- and that their concerns are for the artifact’s well-being. Last year, Dietrich Wildung, curator of the Altes Museum where Nefertiti is housed, conducted a number of tests on the bust. Using CAT scans, he was able to analyze the bust’s composition with an unprecedented level of detail.

 Once thought to be painted limestone, Wildung now thinks the bust is a limestone core covered with a layer of plaster or gypsum that ranges from four centimeters thick in some places to a scant millimeter on the queen’s fine-featured face. “That way the model could be adjusted and altered,” Wildung told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Indeed, a new lighting arrangement reveals fine wrinkles and slight bags under the queen’s eyes and on her neck, a level of detail that the plaster made possible. “I think it makes her much more beautiful,” Wildung says. “She’s a ripe woman, not a cover girl from some TV magazine.

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Too precious to risk

But Wildung claims the thin plaster layer rules out foreign travel. “It’s much too delicate for a 3,000 kilometer journey,” he says. Wildung’s been backed up by Cultural Minister Bernd Neumann and the German parliament’s Culture Committee, which said last week that the bust was too precious to risk in any way.

But is Queen Nefertiti too fragile to move, or is something else behind Germany’s denial? “They fear we will be like 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' and we will take it and not give it back,” Hawass said last month.

From the Egyptian point of view, claims that the artifact is too fragile to move are undermined by an incident in 2003, when two Hungarian artists were allowed to use the sculpture to create a video installation intended for the Venice Biennale. (After complaints and sanctions from Egypt -- including a personal ban on Wildung’s work there -- the display was called off.)

“I don’t see it as a substantial argument,” says al-Orabi. “With all the technology and means of transportation now, the queen can travel anywhere in the world.”

Resolving the issue is critical. An Egyptian boycott on German museums would threaten future exhibitions of Egyptian artifacts, a steady crowd-pleaser for museums all over the world. Hawass has even threatened to organize a worldwide boycott on German museums if Nefertiti isn’t allowed home for a visit -- unlikely to materialize, but still bad for Germany’s image.

And with a million Germans visiting Egypt every year, Egypt has an interest in working out a deal as well. “We need each other. We need dialogue, not confrontation,” al-Orabi says. “After all, Egyptian heritage is human heritage.”



RELATED SPIEGEL ONLINE LINKS


Photo Gallery: The Battle for Antiquities

WWII Booty On Display: Treasure Looted From Germany Goes On Show in Moscow (03/13/2007)

'Nazi Looted Art': New Handbook Helps Descendents Reclaim Nazi Loot (01/31/2007)

© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2007

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                          Germans reject claim that Nefertiti was smuggled out of Egypt 






Posted : Thu, 12 Feb 2009 
Author : DPA 
Berlin

- German officials have rejected claims that the bust of the pharaonic queen Nefertiti, hailed as the world's most beautiful woman, was smuggled out of Egypt using a ruse nearly a century ago. "The claim that the division of treasures did not take place by the rules is untrue," said the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which has possession of the painted limestone carving.

Media reports claimed Wednesday that Nefertiti's obvious value was concealed during a 1913 meeting to legally apportion the treasures from a German-led archaeological excavation with half for each side.

The foundation denied the German archaeologist had deceived Gustave Lefebvre, Egypt's inspector of antiquities, who checked the finds at Amarna.

It had been the practice at the time to use both photographs and samples of the array of objects to arrive at a fair division of the finds, said the foundation, arguing in effect that Germany could not be held responsible for Lefebvre's failure to realize the bust was so valuable.

Nefertiti, one of Berlin's top tourist draws, is set to obtain a new home at the end of February when the Egyptian collection moves to the Neues Museum on the Island of Museums after its renovation.

Egypt has often called for a return of the 3,400-year-figure.

A document, discovered in the archives of the German Oriental Society, suggests that Ludwig Borchardt, the archaeologist who discovered the bust in 1912, deliberately withheld its true value from Egyptian authorities, the magazine Der Spiegel said.

Written in 1924, the document recounts a meeting held on January 20, 1913 between Borchardt and Lefebvre.

According to the document, penned by the secretary of the German Oriental Company who was present at the meeting, "Borchardt wanted to save the bust for us," Der Spiegel said.

To achieve this goal the bust was tightly wrapped and placed at the bottom of a box in a poorly lit room where Lefebvre was examining artefacts discovered during the excavation.

According to the witness, Borchardt presented an unflattering photograph of the bust. He also said it was made of gypsum, which is of little value, when in fact Nefertiti was painted on limestone.

Nefertiti was the chief wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten who ruled about 1350 BC.



http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/255460,germans-reject-claim-that-nefertiti-was-smuggled-out-of-egypt.html

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                                                EGYPTIAN QUEEN IN BERLIN




                                        Cairo Demands Clarification on Nefertiti Bust






SpiegelOnLine
Feb. 12, 2009
Germany

Egypt may renew its official demand for the return of the famous Nefertiti bust after a newly-surfaced document claims German archaeologists tried to trick Egyptian experts about its importance in 1913. A chief archaeologist in Cairo is leading the charge.

"This time I mean it very seriously," is how Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, characterized his fresh demand for the bust of Queen Nefertiti, which German archaeologists brought home in 1913. He was reacting to SPIEGEL magazine piece that suggested the Germans had tricked Egyptian experts about the true nature of the now-legendary bust.


 DPA
The bust of Nefertiti is almost 3,400 years old.
Hawass has long called on Berlin to return the bust of Nefertiti, which sits in the city's Egyptian Museum, but SPIEGEL revealed in this week's edition of the magazine that an obscure document from 1924 charged the German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt with "cheating" to secure the bust for Germany.

"I immediately sent a letter to the German Oriental Institute demanding a copy of the document," Hawass told Agence France-Presse. "If it is authentic we will work with all our power with the German government to bring back the statue." He reiterated his position to the German radio station ARD and added, "This time I mean it very seriously."

The secretary of the German Oriental Institute reported in 1924 on a 1913 meeting between Borchardt and a senior Egyptian official. Egypt and Germany had an agreement to split antiquities found by Borchardt's team "à moitié exacte," or 50-50, but the secretary reported in his memo that Borchardt "wanted to save the bust for us."

The bust lay wrapped in a box in a dim room when the Egyptian official, chief antiquities inspector Gustave Lefébvre, looked over artifacts from the Borchardt dig. The secretary wrote that Borchardt presented Lefébvre with an unflattering photo of the bust and claimed it was made of gypsum, when in fact it has a limestone core under a layer of stucco.

Whether Lefébvre went to the trouble of lifting the bust out of the box isn't clear. But the secretary, who witnessed the meeting, claimed there was "cheating" involved, since the Germans misrepresented the material.

 The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation has possession of the bust and rejects any charge of cheating. The idea that the antiquities were not divided according to the rules in 1913 "is false," the foundation has claimed in a statement. Lefébvre, in other words, just overlooked the importance of the piece.

The German Oriental Institute admits the existence of the document, but also maintains there was no serious breach of the rules. "Nefertiti was at the top of the exchange list," a spokesman for the company told SPIEGEL. "The inspector could have looked at everything closely.... It's not admissible to complain about the deal reached at the time."

The well-preserved Nefertiti bust depicts the queen of Sun King Akhenaten, who was pharaoh of ancient Egypt at the peak of its imperial power almost 3,400 years ago. Egypt has demanded it back from Germany for various reasons since the 1930s. It's now a star attraction at the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, which receives half a million visitors per year.



msm -- with wire reports 

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                                             How deceit won a beautiful woman






Al Ahram Weekly
Week of Feb. 23, 2009

Can a 1924 document charging German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt with cheating to secure the Nefertiti bust for Germany guarantee its return to Egypt? Nevine El-Aref investigates


 
The conflict between Egypt and Germany over the 3,400-year-old iconic bust of Queen Nefertiti has again come to the fore following the discovery of a 1924 document revealing the mysterious story behind Germany's possession of the Nefertiti bust.

The latest edition of the German magazine Der Spiegel, published last week, contains a report that the German Oriental Association (DOG) had discovered a 1924 document claiming that Ludwig Borchardt, the discoverer of the Nefertiti bust, used a trick to smuggle the bust to Germany. According to the magazine, the document's authenticity is currently being analysed by experts.

The newspaper also said that the document was written by an eyewitness who claimed that Borchardt, who was keen on reserving the bust for Germany, intentionally disguised it by covering it with a layer of gypsum to ensure that the committee charged with supervising the distribution of new discoveries between Egypt and foreign mission would not see how beautiful the bust was or realise that it was actually made of exquisitely painted limestone.

The secretary of the DOG reported in 1924 on a 1913 meeting between Borchardt and a senior Egyptian official. Egypt and Germany had an agreement to split antiquities found by Borchardt's team, but the secretary reported in his memo that Borchardt "wanted to save the bust for us".

The bust lay wrapped in a box in a dim room when the Egyptian official, chief antiquities inspector, Gustave Lefébvre, looked over the artefacts from the Borchardt dig. The secretary wrote that Borchardt had presented Lefébvre with an unflattering photograph of the bust and claimed it was made of gypsum, when in fact it had a limestone core under a layer of stucco.

Whether Lefébvre went to the trouble of lifting the bust out of the box is not clear. However, the secretary who witnessed the meeting claimed there was "cheating" involved, since the Germans misrepresented the material.

A spokesman for the DOG told the British daily The Times that the bust belonged to Germany. "It is not right to complain now about a deal that was struck long ago," the spokesman told the Times.

The dispute between Egypt and Germany over the bust blew up in 2005 when Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), 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 architect Hemiunnu in the Roemer-Pelizaeus Museum in Hilesheim; the Dendara Temple Zodiac in the Louver 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 a three-month loan for the 2012 opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking the Giza Pyramids. German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann rejected the request and justified his refusal by claiming that experts had reservations about taking Nefertiti on a long trip. "We have to take [these reservations] seriously," Neumann said.

In response to the article in Der Spiegel, Hawass wrote to the DOG asking for a copy of the document.

"If it is authentic, we will work with all out efforts and power with the German government to recover the bust," Hawass told Al-Ahram Weekly.

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which has possession of the bust, rejects any charge of cheating. The idea that the antiquities were not divided according to the rules in 1913 is "false", the foundation has claimed in a statement. Lefébvre, in other words, overlooked the importance of the piece.

The DOG admits the existence of the document, but also maintains there was no serious breach of the rules. "Nefertiti was at the top of the exchange list," a spokesman for the company told Der Spiegel. "The inspector could have looked at everything closely... It's not admissible to complain about the deal reached at the time."

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Nefertiti's bust in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, perhaps the best-known work of art from ancient Egypt, was unearthed in 1912. Hawass says that Borchardt, anxious to preserve the bust for Germany, 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 concerned. Back then, the law required discoveries to be brought to what was called the Antiquities Service, where a special committee supervised the distribution. Borchardt, who discovered the head at Tel Al-Amarna, either did not declare the bust, or hid it under less important objects. Either that, or the Egyptian authorities failed to recognise its beauty and importance. According to Borchardt himself, he did not clean the bust but left it covered in mud when he took it to the Egyptian Museum for the usual division of spoils. The service, on that occasion, took the limestone statues of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and gave the head of Queen Nefertiti to the expedition because it was made of gypsum -- or so it was thought.

Whatever happened, the antiquities authorities did not know about the bust until it was put on show in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin in 1923, and they had certainly never expressly agreed that this piece should be included in the German share of the Tel Al-Amarna finds.

From the earliest days of cultural property legislation the principle has been that the country of origin must expressly permit the export of every single national cultural treasure. With respect to the bust of Nefertiti, the Egyptian authorities did not give that permission. The Egyptian government later made an attempt to have the bust returned, but Hitler, who had fallen in love with it, refused. He announced that she was his beloved possession, and would remain in Germany forever.

The exquisite painted limestone bust has been on display in solitary, stunningly dramatic surroundings at the museum ever since. Two years ago, however, in a highly curious curatorial decision, 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 how Nefertiti might have appeared.

 


© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly

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                                Egyptian tells Berlin paper he'll 'prove' Nefertiti was stolen 






Sat, 13 Jun 2009   
Earth Times 
Berlin

- Zahi Hawass, the flamboyant head of Egypt's antiquities authority, says he will offer documentary proof that the fabled bust of Queen Nefertiti does not belong to Germany, a Berlin newspaper was set to report on Sunday. Hawass, whose media savvy has put Egypt's archaeological treasures on front pages round the world, has vocally called in the past for the return of the bust, found in a tomb nearly a century ago and then claimed by a Berlin millionaire who financed the excavation.

The newspaper, Tagesspiegel am Sonntag, quoted him as saying, "I believe we have good arguments for her return."

He said he would produce documents showing the bust's export after its re-discovery in 1912 was illegal.

Hawass, whose personal website shows him in his trademark broad-brimmed hat, told the German paper he knew of 5,000 "important" Egyptian artefacts in foreign collections, but added that only five were of "unique importance to our culture."

One was Nefertiti, a limestone carving with a plaster and paint finish.

Though now one-eyed, she is sometimes dubbed the most beautiful woman in the world.

German officials insist Egypt has never formally applied for the return of the bust, which is exhibited in the Pergamon Museum in the heart of Berlin. The museum says the financial terms of the 1912 dig provided for the finds to be shared between Egypt and the Germans.