The Tamesis
Leading Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass this week reiterated her commitment to bringing home the bust of Nefertiti, claiming that Egypt is more willing than ever to host the event thanks to the recent opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum near Giza.
He renewed his call for Berlin’s Staatsmuseum to return the bust of Nefertiti, which dates to about 1970. 1351 BC to 1334 BC, it is one of the most famous ancient Egyptian artifacts preserved outside Egypt. It faced repeated calls for repatriation over the years and was almost returned to Egypt during World War II when the Nazi regime thought it would help Germany curry favor with the Egyptians.
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German Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt discovered the bust in 1912 at Amanatl and brought it back. The bust has been on display at the Neues Museum since 2009.
Germany insists the bust was exported legally. Over time, Havas’s position on what really happened in 1912 changed. In 2010, Havas told national geographic Although he added, “I really want it back.” In 2024, he called the bust “blatantly stolen” in an interview. Deutsche Welle.
in a washington postal In an interview published this week, Havas dismissed a common argument often made by Western museums against repatriation: that institutions in parts of the Global South do not meet standards because they lack the appropriate climate control systems and other measures used by museums in the United States and Europe. “You cannot say that Egypt cannot protect its antiquities,” Hawass told reporters washington post. “No museum can match the quality of presentation at the great museums.”
Hawass is a controversial figure in archaeology circles and has previously faced corruption charges and claims he was overly involved in the authoritarian Mubarak regime. However, his remarks about Egyptian archeology are being closely watched, especially since the Grand Egyptian Museum is now fully open after being partially completed in 2024. The 968,000-square-foot museum, or GEM, attracts at least 15,000 visitors a day, according to the Egyptian government.
Towards postalHawass said the GEM was the best place to see the bust of Nefertiti and that he would not travel to Berlin to see it. “I simply refuse to look at the bust of Nefertiti,” he said. “This bust should be in Egypt, and I will bring it to Egypt.”
