The Beautiful Nefertiti: Who Owns Her

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening whenever you are reading this blog post and planning.  This documentary just popped up on my feed and I am going to do a second documentary on Queen Nefertiti.  This one is going to talk about the bust of Queen Nefertiti it is called The Beautiful Nefertiti: Who Owns Her and has a run time of 42:52.

The Berlin Museum houses the bust of the famous Queen Nefertiti.  It is the museum’s biggest attraction.  However, there are questions about who really owns the bust.  The Egyptians miss having the bust in their possession.  Since 1924, both France and Egypt have been challenging Germany for ownership.  The Nefertiti bust was ancient Egypt’s best know discovery, so who really does own the bust?  Art historian Benedicte Savoy explores the ownership question.

Benedicte Savoy begins her exploration of the Nefertiti busts in Amarna where the bust was discovered.  She wants to explore the story behind the discovery of the Nefertiti bust.  In 1912, the bust of Queen Nefertiti was discovered by Ludwig Borchardt.  He brought it straight to Berlin where it remains to this day.  During the early 1900s, archeologists worked quickly to discover Ancient Egyptian history.  It has never made an appearance in Egypt since its discovery other than copies of the bust.  This bust has been the subject of man disputes for decades. 

The mummy of Queen Nefertiti has never been discovered, so the bust is a glance at how the beautiful queen looked.  An unfinished bust of the late queen is on display in the Egyptian Museum.  However, it is always compared to the Berlin Nefertiti bust.  There are many Egyptians who long to see the Nefertiti bust back in Egypt.  Sabah Abdel Razik, the director of the Egyptian Museum in Cario talks about the Nefertiti bust and her wish for the bust to come back to Egypt.

Berlin is the next stop on this question of who owns the Nefertiti bust.  Prussian kings established a museum area and filled it with treasures from around the world.  The Nefertiti bust is the biggest draw to the Berlin Museum.  So far there have been no official demands for the return of the bust.  Egyptian ambassadors recognize that the bust is the best ambassador for Egypt and use the museum as a reception space.

The bust was created 3,000 years ago out of limestone.  The bust was covered in plaster and painted.  How did this bust end up in the Berlin Museum?  Benedicte Savoy explores the relations and their role in how museums gathered their collections.  Savoy goes to the place where the Nefertiti bust was discovered and to the exact room where the bust was discovered.  It was here that I was looking for a quick little discussion on the debate over the authenticity of the bust.  However, it is here that there is a look at the documents about the discovery of the Nefertiti bust.

Ludwig Borchardt knew what he had discovered and was going to find any way to get her back to Germany for display.  There were laws in place that meant any finds that were discovered needed to be divided up equally for display.  The bust was found in what would have been considered a sculpture workshop.  It was found among other busts in this room.  Savoy continues to explore the partnership between France and Germany and the exploration of Ancient Egypt.  Who really owns the Nefertiti bust?  Tune into the rest of this documentary to discover more about the debate.

I would have appreciated hearing more about Queen Nefertiti herself as well as the bust.  It would have provided additional context to the story of the bust.  It should have been made clearer as to the context in which the bust was discovered.  I would have skipped talking about the impact of the Arab Spring.  Perhaps this documentary should have been made longer to add that context.  I was waiting for Kara to make an appearance in the documentary, and when she did not I was left disappointed.  This would be one documentary to skip showing to a history class and I would not even bother to use this for research purposes.