Dispute over Nefriti Bust

[Davita]

Face to face

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THE LONG-STANDING dispute between Cairo and Berlin over the iconic bust of Nefertiti, currently housed in Berlin's Altes Museum, reached new heights this week when German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann rejected a request to loan the bust to Egypt for three months, reports Nevine El-Aref.

The decision came a year after the Supreme Council of Antiquities' (SCA) Secretary-General Zahi Hawass requested the loan in a speech delivered before presidents Hosni Mubarak and Horst Khöler at the inauguration of the Egypt's Sunken Treasures exhibition in Berlin last May. Hawass asked for the loan of the bust so it could go on show at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo to coincide with the centenary celebrations of the German Archaeological Institute in Egypt. In return, Hawass pledged during his speech, that the SCA would offer another statue to the Egyptian Museum in Berlin for the three months that Nefertiti was in Egypt.

"Experts have reservations about taking Nefertiti on a long trip, which we have to take seriously," said Neumann.

This response triggered anger among local Egyptologists who claim that the bust, discovered in 1912 by German excavator Ludwig Borchardt in an artist's atelier in Tel Al-Amarna, was taken illegally from Egypt. Anxious to take the bust to Germany, Borchardt took advantage of the practice, common at the time, of splitting any new discovery between the Egyptian Antiquities Authority and the foreign mission concerned. Borchardt himself reported that 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 museum took two limestone statues of Akhenaten and Nefertiti and gave the head of Queen Nefertiti to the expedition because it was made of gypsum -- or so they thought.

Rumours over what actually went on that day have persisted, one common claim being that Borchardt disguised the head, covering it with a layer of gypsum to ensure that the committee would note that it was actually made of painted limestone.

Culture Minister Farouk Hosni described the German decision as "unjustified, especially given that Egypt has never withheld permission for archeological exhibitions held in Germany".

Last Thursday Hawass announced that he will resubmit the request to borrow the bust.


http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/841/fr1.htm

[Davita]

Egypt, German row over Nefertiti deepens

    April 16 2007 at 12:31AM 
 
Cairo - Egypt on Sunday threatened to ban future displays of its ancient artifacts in Germany if Berlin refuses to return a 3 400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti for a temporary exhibition.

"(Egypt) will never again organise antiquities exhibitions in Germany if it refuses a request, to be issued next week, to allow the bust of Nefertiti to be displayed in Egypt for three months," antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass told parliament, according to the official MENA news agency.

His comments came after German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann refused to allow the bust of Nefertiti - renowned as one of history's great beauties - to be exhibited in Egypt because it was too delicate to be transported.

"Experts have reservations about taking Nefertiti on a long trip, which we have to take seriously," Neumann said in reaction to a campaign launched in Germany under the title "Nefertiti travels" to loan the bust to Egypt for a limited period.

Experts have' reservations about taking Nefertiti on a long trip'
Cairo and Berlin have frequently crossed swords over the limestone bust, which was unearthed by German archaeologists in an artist's studio on the banks of the Nile and taken to Germany under a 1913 agreement.

It was described by Adolf Hitler as "a true treasure".

A row broke out in 2003 when the Berlin museum allowed artists to temporarily attach the bust to a bronze statue of a naked woman.

Nefertiti was the wife of Pharaoh Akhenaton, remembered for having switched his kingdom to monotheism with the worship of one sun god, Aton.

Hawass has made it his mission to retrieve Egypt's widely scattered antiquities that can be found in museums around the world.

But the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which is responsible for Berlin's art treasures, also ruled out a return to Egypt, saying: "After 3 000 the lady is travel weary." - Sapa-AFP

 http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=588&art_id=nw20070415235514842C565378

[cleasterwood]

You know, that's the one thing I agree with Hawass about and that's returning stolen antiquities.  I don't think Nefertiti's bust should even be in Germany especially since Hilter was the fracker who took it!  I'm of mixed heritage, German, Welsh, Irish, Cherokee, and I hate the fact that my ancestors may have taken part in such atrocities as those committed by the Nazis.    Make love not war!
Blessed be,
Lynn

[Bianca]

Agreed.  That bust of Nefertiti should be returned to Egypt, just as the so-called "Elgin

Marbles" should be returned to Greece by the British!

[Davita]

Agreed with both of you, just as court just ruled that:

Court rules Italy should return Venus to Libya Mon Apr 23, 1:09 PM ET


ROME (Reuters) - Italy can return to Libya an ancient statue of Venus taken to Rome during Italian colonial rule in 1912, after a court ruled on Monday it was not part of Italy's cultural heritage.

 
The headless "Venus of Cyrene" was carried away from the town of Cyrene -- an ancient Greek colony -- by Italian troops and put on display in Rome.

Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's promise to return it on a visit to Libyan leader        Muammar Gaddafi in 2002 was blocked by legal action lodged by a group called "Our Italy," whose aim is to keep Italy's cultural treasures in Italian ownership.

Alessandro Ruffini, lawyer for the Libyan embassy in Rome, told Reuters the Lazio appeals court ruling that Italy did not have an historic claim to the statue was "well grounded."

He said this could set a helpful precedent for Italy's own efforts to recover works of art smuggled abroad.

Some Italians oppose the return of such works of art, with National Alliance deputy Fabio Rampelli lamenting "the systematic looting of Italy's 'naturalized' artistic heritage."

He hoped the Venus would not "suffer the same fate" as the ancient Axum Obelisc which troops of dictator Benito Mussolini took from what was then Abyssinia in 1937. It was returned to Ethiopia to be "abandoned on a rooftop," according to Rampelli.

Late last year Rome was rebuffed by the Getty Museum when it requested the return of a 2,500-year-old Greek statue of a boy. Italy threatened to break off ties with the wealthy Los Angeles museum over the statue and other works that it says were looted.

[Davita]

All countries should return artifacts to countries they were stolen from! 

[Bianca]

St. Petersburg Times - May 11, 2007



ANTIQUITIES CHIEF SAYS EGYPT WILL FIGHT FOR NEFERTITI BUST

CAIRO, Egypt. - Egypt's antiquities chif says if persuasion doesn't
work, he will fight for an ancient bust of Nefertiti that a Berlin
museum maintains is too fragile to ever travel.

Zawi Hawass rattled world museums last week with requests to
hand over ancient Egyptian masterpices, including the Rosetta
Stone - some as loans, others permanently.

Hawass told the Associated Press in the interview Wednesday that
the goal is to display the pieces in two new museums, especially the
Grand Museum, which will open in 2012 next to the Great Pyramids
of Giza.

But the bombastic archaeologist - known for wearing an Indiana
Jones-style hat - has met resistance from museums reluctant to
part with prized artifacts.

"Some people say, "If we give this bust to Egypt for three months,
they will not return it,"  Hawass said of the Nefertiti piece.  "I say:
We are not the pirates of the Caribbean.  We are in the 21st Century,
we have cooperation with all the countries and they respect our work."

Over the centuries, thousands of Egyptian antiquities have been taken
out of the country, some stolen, some removed by famed archaeologists.
Many are now in the world's greatest museums.

At the top of Hawass' request list are the bust of Nefertiti and the
Rosetta Stone, a basalt slab with an inscription that was the key to deci-
phering Egyptian hieroglyphics.

The bust is in Berlin's Egyptian Museum; the Rosetta Stone is in the
British Museum in London.

[Bianca]

I rarely agree with Hawass, except on this.

A few years ago, the Government of Egypt refused, at the last minute, to
deliver on their contract with the St. Peterburg International Museum.

The Museum was in dire straits, and at the last minute, almost, before
opening day.  We got bailed out  by a Museum in Germany (not the one
in Berlin) that has the LARGEST collection of Egyptian artifacts in the
world, outside of Egypt.......

[cleasterwood]

It's almost a shame though.  Soon Hawass will be asking for ones that weren't stolen.  I agree the stole ones should be returned because of how they were acquired, but I also think that this just adds to the mystery of what history Hawass might be trying to hide.  He already debunks every theory he doesn't like and throws researchers out of the country because of it.  What's next?

[Bianca]

Forget Hawass here, Lynn.

Both GREECE and EGYPT have been robbed blind.

There is no escaping that.

[cleasterwood]

I understand that Bianca.  And I still say return the stolen artifacts.  The problem will arise when Hawass wants the ones that weren't stolen returned.  The treasures should be shared with the world.  Yes it's Egypt's cultural heritage, but it's also part of the world's heritage.  But if the artifacts were taken legally, then they should be allowed to stay where they are and not risk damaging them by crating them up and shipping them out.