Queen Nefertiti moves to her new digs

July 22 2005 at 11:32AM

By Ernest Gill

Berlin - One of art history's most beautiful women is moving to a new
address this summer, marking the reunification of the Berlin Egyptian
Museum's fabulous collection after more than six decades of division.

The exquisite limestone bust of Queen Nefertiti forms the focal point
of the collection, which re-opens to the public on August 13 in its
new-old home at Berlin's Museum Island complex in the heart of the
German capital.

The grand re-opening culminates 15 years of painstaking restoration
work, museum renovations and cataloguing of the collection, which was
split up for safekeeping during World War 2 and which languished in
minimal exhibition spaces in both halves of the divided city - until now.

'The bust is a unique masterpiece, an ornament, a true treasure!'
The event has been keenly awaited in the dusty world of archaeology
because the Berlin collection ranks among the top two or three
collections in the world outside Egypt itself. The British Museum, the
Louvre in Paris and the Metropolitan in New York are the only chief
rivals to Berlin's collection, which spans all eras from the
pre-Dynastic period all the way through to Roman times.

Until now, however, it was not possible to see the collection at one
place. And, owing to the fact that exhibition spaces were limited,
much of the collection remained stored away.

Archaeologists and art historians are converging on Berlin to glimpse
artefacts that have not been put on view for nearly 70 years.

Unquestionably the most spectacular item in the Berlin collection is
one of the great masterpieces of Ancient Egyptian art - the 3
300-year-old bust of 18th Dynasty Queen Nefertiti.

The painted limestone and plaster bust, depicting the elegantly
chiselled life-sized features of a stunningly beautiful woman wearing
a unique cone-shaped headdress, has formed the cornerstone of the
collection since German archaeologists discovered the bust in the
ruins of an ancient artist's studio on the banks of the Nile in 1912.

The collection initially was housed at the Neues Museum (New Museum)
just a few metres from the Hohenzollern Palace in the heart of Berlin.
Reflecting the fashion of the times, the museum itself was done up
inside to resemble an Ancient Egyptian temple, complete with
hieroglyphic inscriptions on the walls.

But as bombs rained down on Berlin during World War 2, curators
hastily stashed the city's art treasures at warehouses outside the
city. After the war, some of those warehouses turned out to be in East
Germany, and others in West Germany.

Nefertiti ended up in the west and took up residency in West Berlin's
makeshift Egyptian museum in a converted guard house across the street
from Charlottenburg Palace. But the bulk of the Berlin Egyptian
collection remained in the east, and was on view at the Bode Museum in
East Berlin until the Berlin Wall came down.

Now at long last Nefertiti returns to the newly rebuilt but
anachronistically named Altes Museum (Old Museum).

This museum was a sadly romantic and weed-overgrown war ruin under the
East German regime, whose leaders never saw fit to restore it, citing
"ideological" reasons for not touching a museum built by Prussian kings.

Now it is a marvel of late 18th Century architecture, and is a
fittingly royal house for an Ancient Egyptian queen.

But even the Altes Museum is only temporary lodgings for her. Her
original digs in the nearby Neues Museum will be ready by 2008 or '09,
thus bringing her back home again.

An alluring mystery has surrounded the bust since its discovery on
December 7, 1912, incredibly intact and sporting vibrant colours,
after lying in forgotten in the sands since the tumultuous days at the
close of the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaton, one of the most enigmatic
rulers of all time.

In 1913, the Ottoman Empire agreed to allow its finder, part-time
German-Jewish archaeologist and full-time entrepreneur James Simon, to
retain possession of the bust.

Simon carted it off to Europe and displayed Nefertiti prominently
displayed in his home in Berlin before later lending it to the Berlin
museum and finally donating it in 1920 to the Berlin collection.

In 1933 the Egyptian government demanded Nefertiti's return - the
first of many such demands over the decades to come. One of the many
titles Hermann Goering held was premier of Prussia (which included
Berlin) and, acting in that capacity, Goering suggested to King Fouad
I of Egypt that Nefertiti would soon be back in Cairo.

But Hitler had other plans. Through the ambassador to Egypt, Eberhard
von Stohrer, Hitler informed the Egyptian government that he was an
ardent fan of Nefertiti: "I know this famous bust," the fuehrer wrote.
"I have viewed it and marvelled at it many times. Nefertiti
continually delights me. The bust is a unique masterpiece, an
ornament, a true treasure!"

Hitler said Nefertiti had a place in his dreams of rebuilding Berlin
and renaming it Germania.

"Do you know what I'm going to do one day? I'm going to build a new
Egyptian museum in Berlin," Hitler went on.

"I dream of it. Inside I will build a chamber, crowned by a large
dome. In the middle, this wonder, Nefertiti, will be enthroned. I will
never relinquish the head of the Queen."

While he did not mention it at the time, Hitler envisioned more for
the museum. There was to be an even larger hall of honour, with a bust
of Hitler.

Hitler and his mad dreams are long dead. But Nefertiti continues to
smile serenely. As she has for 3 300 years. As if to say, this too
shall pass. And I shall endure. - Sapa-dpa

quote:

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Hitler and his mad dreams are long dead. But Nefertiti continues to smile serenely. As she has for 3 300 years. As if to say, this too shall pass. And I shall endure. - Sapa-dpa

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