Bust of Nefertiti
A portrait bust of Queen Nefertiti, consort of the pharaoh Akhenaten, found in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose at Amarna. During the Amarna period Egyptian art briefly became softer and more naturalistic.
The symmetry is almost perfect – except for the left eye, which never received its inlay.
The bust was found on 6 December 1912 by a German excavation led by the archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt. It lay in the ruins of the sculptor Thutmose’s workshop at Amarna, the capital founded by the pharaoh Akhenaten. The find was dated to around 1345 BC. The workshop also contained plaster faces and other sculptures, so the bust was probably a master model on which other portraits could be based. According to Borchardt’s diary it was found face down in the rubble, and he wrote that it could not be described but had to be seen.
Nefertiti was Akhenaten’s Great Royal Wife. During his reign one god above all was worshipped, the sun disc Aten. Art changed: bodies and faces acquired softer, more personal features than in the strictly formalised art of Egypt. After Akhenaten’s death Amarna was abandoned and his reforms were reversed. Nefertiti often appears in Amarna art together with the king and their daughters, beneath the rays of the sun disc. She is presented as a powerful figure, not merely as the king’s wife.
The bust is just under fifty centimetres tall. The queen wears a tall, flat-topped blue crown with a gold band. At the front was a uraeus cobra, which is now broken off. Around her neck lies a broad collar in red, green and blue. The face has high cheekbones, a slender nose and clearly drawn eyebrows. The right eye has an inlay of quartz with a black pupil, while the left lacks an inlay. Why, no one knows for certain. The long neck, tilted slightly back, supports the heavy crown. The face is almost perfectly symmetrical.
The core is limestone covered with layers of gypsum, which were then painted. CT scans have shown that the limestone core has a slightly different face, with small wrinkles and creases. The layers of gypsum smoothed them out and gave the idealised expression. The colours are unusually well preserved.
The bust came to Berlin through the division of finds then made between Egypt and the excavators. The excavation was funded by the businessman James Simon. Whether the Egyptian authorities were given a fair picture of the object is disputed. The bust was first shown to the public in 1924. Since then Egypt has repeatedly demanded its return, but Germany has declined. For a short period in the 1930s a return was discussed, but it was stopped.
During the Second World War the bust was hidden in bunkers and mines. After the war it ended up with American troops and was later taken to West Berlin. Since 2009 it has been displayed in the Neues Museum on Museum Island, where it has a room of its own.
The Bust of Nefertiti has become an icon of beauty and of ancient Egypt. It appears on stamps, posters and in advertising. It is also one of the best-known examples in the debate over where cultural heritage belongs and over objects taken from their countries of origin during the colonial era.