How Germany stole the statue of Nefertiti, one of the most famous ancient Egyptian archaeological works, which is a greased bust of limestone over 3,300 years old, sculpted by the Egyptian sculptor Thutmose in about 1345 BC, of ​​Queen Nefertiti, the wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten.
It was found by a German excavation team led by Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt in Tell el-Amarna, Egypt, in 1912.
In 1924, a document was found in the archives of the German Oriental Company (which undertook the excavations) about a meeting on January 20, 1913, between Ludwig Borchardt and a high-ranking Egyptian official to discuss the division of archaeological discoveries found in 1912 between Germany and Egypt. According to the German Oriental Company (the owner of the document, who was present at the meeting), Borchardt was determined that the statue was to the Germans and suspected that Borchardt had concealed the bust’s true value, although he denied it.
In 1924, a document was found in the archives of the German Oriental Company (which undertook the excavations) about a meeting on January 20, 1913, between Ludwig Borchardt and a high-ranking Egyptian official to discuss the division of archaeological discoveries found in 1912 between Germany and Egypt. According to the German East Company (the document’s owner, who was present at the meeting), Borchardt was determined that the statue would be of the Germans. [3] [8] It is suspected that Borchardt concealed the bust’s true value, [9] although he denies it. [10]
Borchardt showed the Egyptian official a poorly lit picture of the statue. The statue was hidden in a box when the inspector general of Egyptian antiquities, Gustave Lovefrey, visited. The document revealed that Borchardt had claimed that the statue was made of plaster to mislead the inspector. The German Oriental Company blamed the inspector’s negligence and indicated that the statue was at the top of the division list and that the agreement was fair.
The statue is in Germany.
The statue arrived in Germany in 1913, where it was shipped to Berlin. It was presented to Henry James Simon, a dealer of antiquities and a financier of the Tell el-Amarna excavations. The statue remained with Simon until the statue, and other artefacts found in the excavations of Tell el-Amarna were loaned to the Berlin Museum. Although the rest of the Tell el-Amarna collection has been on display since 1913, the statue of Nefertiti was kept secret at the request of Borchardt. In 1918, museum officials discussed displaying the statue to the public, but the statue remained unexposed at Borchardt’s request. Simon donated the statue to the Berlin Museum definitively in 1920. Finally, in 1923, the statue was first shown to the public with written approval from Borchardt. In 1924, it was offered to the public as part of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin] to move the statue after that to display in the new Berlin Museum until the museum was closed in 1939, with the beginning of World War II. At that time, Berlin’s museums were emptied, and relics moved to safe shelters for preservation
Initially, the statue of Nefertiti was hidden in the basement of the Prussian State Bank; then, it was transported to a fortified military site in Berlin in 1941. In 1943, the New Berlin Museum was bombed by RAF aircraft. On March 6, 1945, the statue was transported to a German salt mine in Thuringia. In March 1945, the statue was found by the US Army and sent to the Army’s Antiquities, Fine Arts and Archives Branch, and then transferred to the German Central Bank in Frankfurt. Then, in August, it was shipped to the American assembly point in Wiesbaden, where it was displayed to the public in 1946. In 1956, the statue was returned to West Berlin, displayed at the Dahlem Museum. In 1946, East Germany insisted that the statue of Nefertiti be returned to Museum Island in East Berlin, where the statue was on display before the war. In 1967, the statue of Nefertiti was transferred to the Egyptian Museum in Charlottenburg, and it remained there until 2005 when it was transferred to the Old Museum. The statue returned to the New Berlin Museum when the museum reopened in October 2009, and the insurance value of the Queen Nefertiti statue was $ 390 million, an estimated € 300 million.
The Egyptian claim to restore the statue
The Egyptian authorities have demanded that the statue be returned to Egypt since the statue was officially unveiled in Berlin in 1924 and 1925; Egypt threatened to ban German excavations of antiquities in Egypt unless the statue of Nefertiti was returned. In 1929, Egypt offered to exchange the statue for some other artwork, but Germany refused. In the 1950s, Egypt tried again to start negotiations about the statue, but without a response from Germany. Despite Germany’s strong opposition to the statue’s return to Egypt, in 1933, the Nazi Minister of Air Force Hermann Göring demanded that the statue be returned to King Fouad I as a political initiative. Hitler opposed the idea and told the Egyptian government to build a new Egyptian museum for Nefertiti. When the statue became under the control of the Americans, Egypt demanded the United States of America hand over the statue. Still, the United States of America refused, and Egypt advised that it discuss the issue with the new German authorities. December 2009, Frederick Seyfried offered. The director of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin has on the Egyptian documents kept at the museum about finding the statue, which includes the protocol that Borchardt signed with the Egyptian Antiquities Authority. In the documents, the statue is described as a colourful plaster statue of a princess. But in the diary of Ludwig Borchardt, he indicated that he was the head of Nefertiti, which proves that Borchardt wrote this description so that his country could obtain the statue, which he commented on that these documents confirm the validity of Egypt’s claim that Borchardt acted unethically with intent to deceive. However, the museum director commented that the authority to approve the statue’s return to Egypt lies between the Prussian Cultural Heritage Center and the German Minister of Culture.
The statue of Nefertiti is 47 cm tall and weighs about 20 kg. It is made of limestone and painted with a layer of plaster. The sides of the face are the same, and it is almost intact, but the left eye lacks the inlay on the right. The right eye pupil is of black coated quartz and fixed with beeswax, while the eye’s background is limestone. Nefertiti wears a distinctive blue crown with a golden wreath, and on her forehead, a cobra (which is now broken) and a wide necklace engraved with flowers; the ears also suffered some damage.