Egypt and Germany have been fighting for possession of her for 90 years but, because Adolf Hitler loved her, she remained in Berlin's Egyptian art museum.
In a dispute as old as the land of the Nile itself, Egypt has repeatedly reasserted its claim to the wayward beauty it says is being held illegally in Berlin.
The wayward beauty is one of the great masterpieces of Ancient Egyptian art -- the 3,300-year-old bust of 18th Dynasty Queen Nefertiti. Now she is on the move again. She will not be going home to Egypt. Instead, she will be moving across town to new digs, relinquishing her pedestal in a converted guard house in what used to be West Berlin for more royal surroundings in the heart of reunited Berlin.
The wounds of post-war division are finally healing over, and the German capital's Egyptian art collection, one of the finest outside Egypt itself, is being brought back together at long last.
The painted limestone and plaster bust, depicting the elegantly chiselled life-sized features of a stunningly beautiful woman wearing a unique cone-shaped headdress, has formed the cornerstone of Berlin's Egyptian collection since German archeologists discovered the bust in the ruins of an ancient artist's studio on the banks of the Nile in 1912.
The collection initially was housed at the Neues Museum (New Museum) just a few meters from the Hohenzollern Palace in the heart of Berlin. Reflecting the fashion of the times, the museum itself was done up inside to resemble an Ancient Egyptian temple, complete with hieroglyphic inscriptions on the walls.
But as bombs rained down on Berlin during World War II, curators hastily stashed the city's art treasures at warehouses outside the city. After the war, some of those warehouses turned out to be in East Germany, and others in West Germany.
Nefertiti ended up in the west and took up residency in West Berlin's makeshift Egyptian museum in a converted guard house across the street from Charlottenburg Palace. But the bulk of the Berlin Egyptian collection remained in the east, and was on view at the Bode Museum in East Berlin until the Berlin Wall came down.
Since then, the city has been working to renovate and, in some cases, rebuild the 19th Century museum complex that once graced the center of this city.
Around the middle of the year, work will have progressed enough that the Egyptian collection will be able to be reunited under one roof for the first time since the war.
Nefertiti will be removed from the converted guard house on March 2 to take up temporary residence at the Kultur Forum exhibition hall at Potsdamer Platz in the revivified centre of Berlin. There, she will form the focal point of a six-month exhibit on Egyptian hieroglyphs and their influence on art up to the modern day.
If all goes according to plan, Nefertiti will be able to move into the newly rebuilt but anachronistically named Altes Museum (Old Museum).
But even the Altes Museum is only temporary lodgings for her. Her original digs in the nearby Neues Museum will be ready by 2008 or 2009, thus bringing her back home again.
An alluring mystery has surrounded the bust since its discovery on Dec. 7, 1912, incredibly intact and sporting vibrant colors, after lying in forgotten in the sands since the tumultuous days at the close of the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaton, one of the most enigmatic rulers of all time.
In 1913, the Ottoman Empire agreed to allow its finder, part-time German-Jewish archeologist and full-time entrepreneur James Simon, to retain possession of the bust.
Simon carted it off to Europe and displayed Nefertiti prominently displayed in his home in Berlin before later lending it to the Berlin museum and finally donating it in 1920 to the Berlin collection.
In 1933 the Egyptian government demanded Nefertiti's return -- the first of many such demands over the decades to come. One of the many titles Hermann Goering held was premier of Prussia (which included Berlin) and, acting in that capacity, Goering suggested to King Fouad I of Egypt that Nefertiti would soon be back in Cairo.
But Hitler had other plans. Through the ambassador to Egypt, Eberhard von Stohrer, Hitler informed the Egyptian government that he was an ardent fan of Nefertiti: "I know this famous bust," the fuehrer wrote. "I have viewed it and marvelled at it many times. Nefertiti continually delights me. The bust is a unique masterpiece, an ornament, a true treasure!"
Hitler said Nefertiti had a place in his dreams of rebuilding Berlin and renaming it Germania.
"Do you know what I'm going to do one day? I'm going to build a new Egyptian museum in Berlin," Hitler went on. "I dream of it. Inside I will build a chamber, crowned by a large dome. In the middle, this wonder, Nefertiti, will be enthroned. I will never relinquish the head of the Queen."
Hitler and his mad dreams are long dead. But Nefertiti continues to smile serenely. As she has for 3,300 years. As if to say, this too shall pass. And I shall endure.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS