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No negotiations on Nefertiti
Press release from 12/18/2009
Recent newspaper reports that the Director of the Egyptian Museum of the National Museums in Berlin, Dr Friederike Seyfried, is negotiating with Dr Zahi-Hawass, Director General of the Egyptian Antiquities Administration, in Cairo about the whereabouts of the famous bust of Nefertiti are completely unfounded.
Seyfried has been in office since August 2009. She is travelling to Egypt in the next few days for an inaugural visit to discuss future joint projects with her colleague Hawass, among other things. Both are endeavouring to work closely together on a scientific and museum level. Seyfried will also hand over documents on the division of finds from the German Orient Society's excavation in January 1913, during which the bust of Nefertiti was also found. Apparently Hawass had not yet received these documents.
There has never been an official request for the return of the bust from the Egyptian state. The documents clearly prove that the Prussian state acquired the bust legally and that there are no legal claims on the part of Egypt.
The question of a possible loan of the bust as part of a temporary exhibition is still being clarified in Berlin. The only decisive factor will be the results of the conservation analyses, particularly with regard to transportability, which have not yet been completed.
The bust of Nefertiti was found as part of a scientific excavation in Tell-el-Amarna in 1912, which was authorised by Egypt. The excavation was made possible by funding from the Berlin merchant and art collector James Simon and was led by Professor Dr Borchardt from the Imperial German Institute for Egyptian Antiquities. From the outset, the agreement with the Egyptian side provided for the then customary sharing of finds in return for the funding. To ensure that both parties received equal shares of the excavation finds, it was agreed that the archaeological team would divide the find into two parts and the Egyptian Department of Antiquities, representing the Egyptian government, would then select one of them. This is exactly what happened. The objects were precisely recorded in lists. Photographs of the outstanding artefacts - including the bust of Nefertiti - were available to show the beauty and quality of the objects. The opened boxes were also available for inspection. There can be no question of any deception in the division.
