Nefertiti bust: Egypt renews call for its return

Egypt is stepping up its campaign to ensure the iconic bust of Nefertiti, currently a prized exhibit in Neues Museum in Berlin, is returned to Egypt.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s minister for antiquities, is to send an official letter to the German government requesting the return of the Nefertiti bust.

German archeologists, led by Ludwig Borchardt, discovered the Nefertiti bust in 1912 in Amarna. The Egyptians maintain that the artefact was taken to Germany illegally. Dr Hawass said the letter he will include all documents confirming Egypt’s ownership of the bust.

Egypt would like the bust to exhibited in the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.

“These documents are a statement to the whole world that the Nefertiti bust belongs to Egypt and not Germany,” Hawass said.

The Nefertiti bust is ranked first on a list of five important objects currently abroad that Egypt wants returned.

The others are the Rosetta Stone (British Museum, London); the statue of Hemiunnu, architect of the Great Pyramid (Roemer-Pelizaeus Museum in Hilesheim); the Dendara Temple Zodiac (the Louvre, Paris); and the bust of Kephren's pyramid builder Ankhaf (Museum of Fine Arts in Boston).

Hawass has told reporters that an ancient Egyptian statue, illegally smuggled out of the country will return from Switzerland as well as the Ka Nefer mummy mask from the United States. This could happen next week.

 Ludwig Borchardt 

The Ka Nefer mummy mask: this could be returned to Egypt soon.