Hatshepsut bust in Berlin may be fake
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A bust in brown granite of female Pharaoh Hatshepsut, acquired by a Berlin museum more than two decades ago, may be a forgery.
Scientists at the Technical University of Berlin have discovered the Hatshepsut stone is rich in the minerals magnesite and siderite. No other bust from the Nile region is made of such rock, suggesting that the 16.5cm figure might be a modern fake.
The museum reportedly paid 1 million marks (R5.9 million) to buy the statue in 1986 from Robin Symes of Britain but Wildung declined to confirm its price.
University denies test on Egyptian bust in Berlin
A news report Sunday said a test of the stone of the bust of Pharaoh Hatshepsut, an Egyptian sculpture at a Berlin museum, suggested it might be a fake. But the Technical University of Berlin said it had never studied the bust’s authenticity. Scientists had in December 2007 merely studied some tiny flakes of stone found on the statue.
‘The analysis found these flakes were made of rock rich in the minerals magnesite and siderite. Where these flakes came from has not been established,’ a statement by the university said.
The German news magazine Der Spiegel had asserted such rock was not sculpted in any other known Pharaonic statue and that this implied the figure was fake. The bust of the female ruler is one of the icons of the Egyptian Museum in the city.
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