The Beautiful One may come home

Germany is willing to consider whether the Bust of Nefertiti can be returned to Cairo for display.

Berlin has proposed to set up a joint committee with Cairo to examine if the statue, currently housed in Berlin’s Altes Museum, can safely make the trip to Egypt for display within two years, Egypt’s antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said during a ceremony to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the German Archeological Institute in Egypt.

The two countries have frequently clashed over the 3,400-year-old limestone bust, which was unearthed in 1913 by German archaeologists on the banks of the Nile and taken to Germany. The Supreme Council of Antiquities threatened earlier this year to ban future exhibitions of its ancient artefacts in Germany if Berlin refused to return the statue.

Egypt wants to display Nefertiti at the opening of the Akhenaton Museum in Minya, Upper Egypt.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hxPqqngFv10-uZajMSF2Fqs1pMUw

Related posts:

1. Egypt to Germany – "No can do"
2. Giza Sphinx not threatened by water

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Egyptology, Tourism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.