Egypt

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 not been threatened. These tough tactics have worked in this case.

But have they set a precedent for future discussions on other controversial artefacts housed in western European museums? Are institutions such as the British Museum going to consider returning the Rosetta Stone or the Elgin Marbles unless they stand to lose out themselves?

The Bust of Nefertiti is on display in Berlin and has been more or less ever since it was discovered in Egypt in 1913. In August this year, Dr Hawass began to stoke the fire around the discussion of this artefact's repatriation, by saying that he would reveal some incontrovertible arguments about the legal ownership of the bust. This information was to be written in a letter to the Neues Museum - opened this week - which now houses the bust.

So the argument is now heating up nicely – but what are the chances that the German museum's curators will agree to Hawass's demand? There are strong arguments on either side but here are some of the most often heard reasons why the German authorities should not give Nefertiti back.

Why The Bust of Nefertiti Should Be Returned To Egypt
Heritage Key
Malcom Jack

In response to the above article, which offers arguments in favour of the bust staying in Berlin, Malcom Jack looks at the practical and ethical arguments in favour of returning the Nefertiti bust to Egypt. He ends with a suggestion that compromise may be the way to go. As in the Economist article from earlier in the year, he suggests that loans may be a way of handling the problem.

The Ethics of Repatriation
Heritage Key
Owen Jarus

This is an article from earlier in the year on Heritage Key, but it is relevant to current discussions on the subject so I thought I'd throw it in for good measure.

- Another Bid For The Return Of Nefertiti
Ahram Online With photos. Egypt’s minister for antiquities, Zahi Hawass, has announced that he will send an official letter to the German government requesting the return of the painted Nefertiti bust now on display at the Neues Museum in Berlin. Hawass...

- Cool Response From Berlin To Egypt's Official Nefertiti Request
Monsters and Critics Berlin responded cooly on Friday to renewed demands from Cairo that the prized bust of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti should be returned to its country of origin from its current home in a Berlin museum. 'A request from Egypt to return...

- Issues Surrounding The Nefertiti Bust.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/797/he1.htmNevine El-Aref talking about the request, made by Zahi Hawass, to lend Egypt the famous Nefertiti bust, currently on permanent display in Berlin, for a three month period: "Hawass asked the German government...

- A Star Like Nefertiti
The head of Egypt's antiquities service, Dr. Zahi Hawass has once again called on the folks in Germany to hand over the bust of Nefertiti found at tell El Amarna in 1912. According to Dr. Hawass he has paperwork to prove the bust was illegally smuggled...

- Nefertiti Going Nowhere
Germany's Minister of Culture Bern Nuemann said today that the bust of Nefertiti in the Neues museum in Berlin will stay in Berlin. The minister was responding to the Egyptian Minister of culture Dr. Zahi Hawass who keeps threatening to make an official...

Egypt