Egypt
Student Life (Kemi Aladesuyi)
First, repatriating objects to the countries from which they originated is not "unprecedented".
- Repatriation Issues Raised In Response To The Chaos
Business Week (Vernon Silver) The day before Egypt's revolution began, the nation's then-antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, demanded that Berlin's Neues Museum hand over its bust of Queen Nefertiti. Three weeks earlier, Hawass warned New York...
- Ongoing Saga Of Nefertiti Bust
All Voices (Christopher Szabo) Demands by Egypt for the return of Queen Nefertiti’s bust to Cairo have been turned down by Germany. State Minister for Culture Bernd Neumann argued the statue rightfully belonged to Germany. Neumann rejected Egyptian...
- Repatriation
10 Reasons Why the Bust of Nefertiti Should Stay in the Neues Museum Heritage Key Bija Knowles There's not much chance that Egypt would have received that reassuring phone call from President Sarkozy had the Louvre's access to excavations at Saqqara...
- How Deceit Won A Beautiful Woman
Al Ahram Weekly Can a 1924 document charging German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt with cheating to secure the Nefertiti bust for Germany guarantee its return to Egypt? Nevine El-Aref investigates Bust of Queen Nefertiti The conflict between Egypt and...
- Archaeology's March-april 2008 Cover Survey
Archaeology Magazine Poll on Vovici The editors of Archaeology Magazine want your opinions on possible covers for upcoming issues. I thought that it might be of interest, because one of the possible covers deals with the Nefertiti and what the KV63 coffins...
Egypt
Repatriation: Nefertiti and the legacy of artifacts
Student Life (Kemi Aladesuyi)
This is another of those articles that I find really frustrating. It's the same old rehashed summary of both the general issues and of the situation regarding Nefertiti, and it asks the same old questions. In this case the writer admits that she/he doesn't have the answers, but thinks that in spite of not having any answers to the important questions the bust should be returned willy-nilly:
Although I do not know the answers to all of these questions, I do believe that Germany has a unique opportunity to set the tone in this coming age of global understanding and equality by doing something completely unprecedented. By returning a symbol of history, culture and art back to its homeland, Germany would acknowledge Egypt, and by extension other countries facing similar issues, as counterpart curators of world history.
First, repatriating objects to the countries from which they originated is not "unprecedented".
Second the term "counterpart curators" sounds good but is a little ambiguous in this context. There have actually been very valid concerns that some items from some countries may not be looked after properly if repatriated because the museums and curatorial standards are not up to scratch. There's a responsibility to unique items to ensure that their condition is maintained at as high a level as possible. The new Grand Museum of Egypt should meet those high standards, but in the case of the Nefertiti bust curatorial issues would not be one of the issues if the museum hits its curatorial targets.
As with the Nefertiti bust many other issues often drive the discussions about repatriation. Often it is a question about the legality of the removal of the item in the first place - and that's something that needs to be thrashed out on a case by case basis.
So many of these articles gloss over the complexities of issues and facts, failing to address wider questions in favour of idealized and often ill thought out generalizations.
And I'm obviously living on a different planet because I have no sense of a "coming age of global understanding and equality".
Poor Nefertiti often seems to bring out total romanticizm in journalism.
Irritating!
I'll update re the outcome of the 8th December meeting if the outcome is made public.
As with the Nefertiti bust many other issues often drive the discussions about repatriation. Often it is a question about the legality of the removal of the item in the first place - and that's something that needs to be thrashed out on a case by case basis.
So many of these articles gloss over the complexities of issues and facts, failing to address wider questions in favour of idealized and often ill thought out generalizations.
And I'm obviously living on a different planet because I have no sense of a "coming age of global understanding and equality".
Poor Nefertiti often seems to bring out total romanticizm in journalism.
Irritating!
I'll update re the outcome of the 8th December meeting if the outcome is made public.
- Repatriation Issues Raised In Response To The Chaos
Business Week (Vernon Silver) The day before Egypt's revolution began, the nation's then-antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, demanded that Berlin's Neues Museum hand over its bust of Queen Nefertiti. Three weeks earlier, Hawass warned New York...
- Ongoing Saga Of Nefertiti Bust
All Voices (Christopher Szabo) Demands by Egypt for the return of Queen Nefertiti’s bust to Cairo have been turned down by Germany. State Minister for Culture Bernd Neumann argued the statue rightfully belonged to Germany. Neumann rejected Egyptian...
- Repatriation
10 Reasons Why the Bust of Nefertiti Should Stay in the Neues Museum Heritage Key Bija Knowles There's not much chance that Egypt would have received that reassuring phone call from President Sarkozy had the Louvre's access to excavations at Saqqara...
- How Deceit Won A Beautiful Woman
Al Ahram Weekly Can a 1924 document charging German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt with cheating to secure the Nefertiti bust for Germany guarantee its return to Egypt? Nevine El-Aref investigates Bust of Queen Nefertiti The conflict between Egypt and...
- Archaeology's March-april 2008 Cover Survey
Archaeology Magazine Poll on Vovici The editors of Archaeology Magazine want your opinions on possible covers for upcoming issues. I thought that it might be of interest, because one of the possible covers deals with the Nefertiti and what the KV63 coffins...