Should Germany return Nefertiti bust to Egypt?

She has an estimated value of €400 million ($433 million) and is a jewel in the crown of Egyptian antiquities. Yet a 3,370 year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti has been in Berlin since 1913.

Pressure is now mounting for her to return home.

Zahi Hawass, former antiquities minister of Egypt, began lobbying to repatriate Nefertiti before the protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

This September, Hawass launched a petition to urge Germany to return the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti, which is currently housed in Berlin's Neues Museum. 

"This bust, remarkable and unrivaled in history for its historical and aesthetic merit, is now in Germany, but it is time for it to come home to Egypt," the petition reads.

A German archaeological team discovered the painted limestone bust in 1912 and shipped it to Europe a year later. 

Nefertiti has become a major tourist attraction and a part of the popular consciousness in the German capital during its long exile.

Nefertiti has top billing in Berlin's Neues MuseumImage: Gero Breloer/AP Photo/picture alliance

Is Nefertiti a symbol of colonialism?

The bust, believed to have been crafted in 1345 BCE, has also been dubbed Egypt's ambassador to the city. But Egyptian archaeologist Monica Hanna questions this narrative.

"An ambassador entails a diplomatic exchange," she told DW, asking if Egypt has received something major in return, such as "the crown of (Prussian monarch) Frederick the Great or a painting by Albrecht Dürer."

"I don't think we have," Hanna said. "If you send an ambassador one way, he's a hostage."

The archaeologist has publicly called for the "decolonization of Egyptian archaeology." She argues that the initiative to repatriate Nefertiti triggers resistance because it "would become a precedent that would pave the road for the return of many different objects taken under colonialism."

Hawass' petition is also calling for the return of the Rosetta Stone and the Dendera Zodiac, Egyptian antiquities held in France and Britain.  

The Rosetta Stone, on display in London's British Museum, is an ancient Egyptian stone bearing inscriptions in several languages and scripts — which served as the key to unlock the secrets of hieroglyphic writing.

The Zodiac of Dendera is a giant stone diagram from a temple in Egypt dating to the mid-1st century BCE, and is currently at the Louvre in Paris.

Berlin museum says there are no grounds for restitution

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation that oversees Berlin's museum collections has acknowledged the presence of stolen colonial art in its collections such as the Benin Bronzes — some of which were returned to Nigeria from Germany in 2022.

But the same foundation believes the Nefertiti bust was obtained legally from Egypt after it was uncovered in the remains of the city of Amarna, the short-lived capital under Pharaoh Akhenaten, Nefertiti's husband. After he died, the city, which sits on the east bank of the Nile River, was abandoned in 1335 BCE.

"The bust of Nefertiti was found in the course of an excavation authorized by the Egyptian Administration of Antiquities," said Stefan Müchler, spokesperson for the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. "It came to Berlin on the basis of a — at that time customary — division of the find which encompassed many more objects."

"The bust was legally taken out of the country and there is no restitution claim of the Egyptian government," he told DW in a written statement.

Müchler is referring to a deal with Egyptian authorities that detailed a 50-50 split of some 10,000 found artifacts in exchange for financing provided by German cotton and textile magnate James Simon.

German art experts say a representative from the Egyptian government selected half of the objects, while the other half was taken to Germany, including the bust, which was displayed in the Neues Museum several years later.

Archaeologist says bust 'brazenly stolen'

Some dispute this framing of events. Hawass writes that the Nefertiti bust "was brazenly stolen from Egypt by the Germans in 1913 when it was concealed and smuggled out of the country despite laws that declared it illegal to remove 'exceptional' archaeological finds from Egypt."

The archaeologist insists that German Egyptologist Ludwig Borchard, the leader of the initial excavation, took Nefertiti out of the country under false pretenses.

According to the Returning Heritage online resource, which reports on cultural restitution debates, "the Egyptian state at that time retained a veto over all objects they felt were too important to leave the country." But it was possible Borchard was able to "misrepresent the importance" of the bust, noted report author Lewis McNaught.

The removal of the Nefertiti sculpture took place before Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered in 1922. This landmark discovery prompted Egypt to remove all rights "given to foreign excavators to take home major discoveries," noted McNaught in his report.

The expert believes it is "highly unlikely" that Hawass will succeed with his campaign to repatriate Nefertiti unless he or the Egyptian authorities "come up with new evidence there was a deliberate deceit."

"How the spoils of such excavations at this time were divided is often (if not always) shrouded in mystery," he told DW.

Edited by: Darko Janjevic