Secret note reveals how Germany smuggled Queen Nefertiti bust from Egypt

German archaeologists cheated Egyptian customs officers in order to smuggle the 3,400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti to Berlin, according to a secret document unearthed in archives.

The document is sure to stoke the row between German and Egypt over the removal of antiquities at the beginning of the 20th century.

The face of Helen of Troy may have launched a thousand ships; the head and shoulders of the beautiful wife of Sun King Akhenaten look set to launch a thousand angry petitions from curators in Cairo.

The document, discovered in the German Oriental Institute, shows that the archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt deliberately hid the true value of the Nefertiti bust when he submitted the inventory of his finds to the Egyptian authorities in 1913.

Written in 1924, the document is the account by the secretary of the German Oriental Company of a meeting he attended on January 20 1913 between Borchardt and a senior Egyptian offical.

The agreement was that Germany and Egypt would divide the spoils equally between them. But, says the witness, Borchardt "wanted to save the bust for us". So it was tightly wrapped up and placed deep in a box in a poorly lit chamber to fool the chief antiquities inspector, Gustave Lefebvre.

A photograph of the bust was deliberately unflattering. The specifications state that the bust was made of gypsum, which is almost worthless, although the queen's features were painted on limestone.

It was enough to get Nefertiti out of the country into Germany.

The Egyptian Museum in Berlin is concerned that it may face fresh demands from Egypt that it return the world-famous bust of Queen Nefertiti following the emergence of new information on how Germany got the priceless ancient artwork.

SPIEGEL has seen the contents of a document written in 1924 in which the secretary of the German Oriental Company (DOG) gave an account of a meeting on Jan. 20, 1913 between a senior Egyptian official and German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt, who found the bust during a dig in 1912.

The secretary had been present at the meeting which was called to divide up the spoils of the dig between Germany and Egypt on a 50-50 basis. Borchardt, the witness noted, "wanted to save the bust for us" and to that end presented a photograph that didn't show Nefertiti in her best light.

Egypt may renew its official demand for the return of the famous Nefertiti bust after a newly-surfaced document claims German archaeologists tried to trick Egyptian experts about its importance in 1913. A chief archaeologist in Cairo is leading the charge.

"This time I mean it very seriously," is how Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, characterized his fresh demand for the bust of Queen Nefertiti, which German archaeologists brought home in 1913. He was reacting to SPIEGEL magazine piece that suggested the Germans had tricked Egyptian experts about the true nature of the now-legendary bust.

German officials have rejected claims that the bust of the pharaonic queen Nefertiti, hailed as the world's most beautiful woman, was smuggled out of Egypt using a ruse nearly a century ago. "The claim that the division of treasures did not take place by the rules is untrue," said the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which has possession of the painted limestone carving.

Media reports claimed Wednesday that Nefertiti's obvious value was concealed during a 1913 meeting to legally apportion the treasures from a German-led archaeological excavation with half for each side.

The foundation denied the German archaeologist had deceived Gustave Lefebvre, Egypt's inspector of antiquities, who checked the finds at Amarna.