Patrick Gardner and the Enigmatic Nefertiti Bust: A Journey Through Ancient Egypt and Modern Controversies

Nov 06, 2025 0

The Bulletin of ASOR (BASOR) stands as a prominent peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to the ancient Near East. Since 1919, BASOR has been a respected interdisciplinary English-language platform for scholars worldwide, covering archaeology and history of the ancient Near Eastern world.

In the world of Egyptology, the Nefertiti Bust has become not only a defining emblem of ancient Egypt but also a symbol of the impact that European colonialism has had on Egypt's history and culture.

The Nefertiti Bust on display at the Neues Museum in Berlin.

Who was Nefertiti?

Nefertiti (meaning "the beautiful one has come forth") was the 14th-century BC Great Royal Wife (chief consort) of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Akhenaten initiated a new monotheistic form of worship called Atenism dedicated to the Sun disc Aten. Little is known about Nefertiti.

Theories suggest she could have been an Egyptian royal by birth, a foreign princess, or the daughter of a high government official named Ay, who became pharaoh after Tutankhamun. She may have been the co-regent of Egypt with Akhenaten, who ruled from 1352 BC to 1336 BC. Nefertiti bore six daughters to Akhenaten, one of whom, Ankhesenpaaten (renamed Ankhesenamun after the suppression of the Aten cult), married Tutankhamun, Nefertiti's stepson.

A "house altar" (c. 1350 BC) depicting Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and three of their daughters:

Discovery and Description of the Bust

The bust was found on 6 December 1912 at Amarna by an archaeological team funded by the German Oriental Company (Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft - DOG), a voluntary association founded by one of the wealthiest men in Prussia, James Simon, who exported more than 20,000 artifacts from Egypt and Iraq. The team was led by German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt.

The bust was found in what had been the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose, along with other unfinished busts of Nefertiti. Borchardt's diary provides the main written account of the find; he remarks, "Suddenly we had in our hands the most alive Egyptian artwork. You cannot describe it with words."

The bust is 48 centimetres (19 in) tall and weighs about 20 kilograms (44 lb). It is made of a limestone core covered with painted stucco layers. The face is completely symmetrical and almost intact, but the left eye lacks the inlay present in the right. The iris of the right eye is of inserted quartz with black paint and is fixed with beeswax. The background of the eye-socket is unadorned limestone.

Nefertiti wears her characteristic blue crown known as the "Nefertiti cap crown" with a golden diadem band looped around like horizontal ribbons and joining at the back, and an Uraeus (cobra), which is now broken, over her brow. According to David Silverman, the bust reflects the classical Egyptian art style, deviating from the "eccentricities" of the Amarna art style, which was developed in Akhenaten's reign.

Borchardt commissioned a chemical analysis of the coloured pigments of the head. The bust was first CT scanned in 1992, with the scan producing cross sections of the bust every five millimetres (0.20 in). In 2006, Dietrich Wildung, director of Berlin's Egyptian Museum, while trying a different lighting at the Altes Museum, where the bust was then displayed, observed wrinkles on Nefertiti's neck and bags under her eyes, suggesting the sculptor had tried to depict signs of aging.

The CT scan in 2006, led by Alexander Huppertz, director of the Imaging Science Institute in Berlin, revealed a wrinkled face of Nefertiti carved in the inner core of the bust. The results were published in the April 2009's Radiology. The scan revealed that Thutmose placed layers of varying thickness on top of the limestone core. The inner face has creases around her mouth and cheeks and a swelling on the nose. The creases and the bump on the nose are leveled by the outermost stucco layer.

The Journey to Germany and Public Display

The bust has been in Germany since 1913, when it was shipped to Berlin and presented to James Simon, a wholesale merchant and the sponsor of the Amarna excavation. It was displayed at Simon's residence until 1913, when Simon lent the bust and other artifacts from the Amarna dig to the Berlin Museum. Although the rest of the Amarna collection was displayed in 1913-14, the bust was kept secret at Borchardt's request.

In 1918, the museum discussed the public display of the bust but again kept it secret at the request of Borchardt. It was permanently donated to the museum in 1920. In 1923, the bust was revealed to the public in Borchardt's writings; in 1924, it was displayed to the public as part of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin. The bust created a sensation, swiftly becoming a world-renowned icon of feminine beauty and one of the most universally recognised artifacts to survive from Ancient Egypt.

In March 1945, the bust was found by the American Army and given over to its Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives branch. Central Collecting Point in Wiesbaden, where it was put on public display beginning in 1946. It remained on display at the Museum Wiesbaden for ten years before being transferred in 1956 to West Berlin, where it was exhibited at the Dahlem Museum. Since the official unveiling of the bust in Berlin in 1924, Egyptian authorities have demanded its return to Egypt.

Read also: Legal Expertise of Chad Gardner

The Repatriation Debate

Since the official unveiling of the bust in Berlin in 1924, Egyptian authorities have demanded its return to Egypt. In 1925, Egypt threatened to ban German excavations in Egypt unless the bust was returned. Although Germany had previously strongly opposed repatriation, in 1933 Hermann Göring considered returning the bust to King Fuad I of Egypt as a political gesture. Hitler opposed the idea and told the Egyptian government that he would build a new Egyptian museum for Nefertiti.

"In the middle, this wonder, Nefertiti, will be enthroned," Hitler said.

Egyptian archaeologist, Egyptologist, and former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs, Zahi Hawass believed that the bust belongs to Egypt and that it was taken out of Egypt illegally and should therefore be returned. He maintained the stance that Egyptian authorities were misled over the acquisition of the bust in 1913 and demanded that Germany prove that it was exported legally.

According to Kurt G. Siehr, another argument in support of repatriation is that "Archeological finds have their 'home' in the country of origin and should be preserved in that country."

The repatriation issue sprang up again in 2003 over the Body of Nefertiti sculpture. In 2007, Hawass threatened to ban exhibitions of Egyptian artifacts in Germany if the bust was not lent to Egypt, but to no avail. He also requested a worldwide boycott of loans to German museums to initiate what he called a "scientific war". Hawass wanted Germany to lend the bust to Egypt in 2012 for the opening of the new Grand Egyptian Museum near the Great Pyramids of Giza. Simultaneously, a campaign called "Nefertiti Travels" was launched by cultural association CulturCooperation, based in Hamburg, Germany.

Several German art experts have attempted to refute all the claims made by Hawass, pointing to the 1924 document discussing the pact between Borchardt and French authorities in Egypt. German authorities have also argued the bust is too fragile to transport and that legal arguments for repatriation were insubstantial.

In December 2009, Friederike Seyfried, director of Berlin's Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, presented to the Egyptians documents held by the museum regarding the discovery of the bust, which include a protocol signed by the German excavator and the French-run Egyptian Antiquities Service. In the documents, the bust was listed as a painted plaster bust of a princess, but in his diary, Borchardt clearly referred to it as the head of Nefertiti.

"This proves that Borchardt wrote this description so that his country can get the statue," Hawass said. "These materials confirm Egypt's contention that (he) did act unethically with intent to deceive." However, Hawass said Egypt did not consider the bust to be a looted antiquity.

Doubts and Controversies

The French language book Le Buste de Nefertiti - une Imposture de l'Egyptologie ? (The Bust of Nefertiti - a Fraud in Egyptology?) by Swiss art historian Henri Stierlin and the book Missing Link in Archaeology by Berlin author and historian Erdogan Ercivan both claimed that the bust was a modern fake.

Stierlin claims that Borchardt may have created the bust to test ancient pigments and that when the bust was admired by Prince Johann Georg of Saxony, Borchardt pretended it was genuine to avoid offending the prince. Stierlin argues that the missing left eye of the bust would have been a sign of disrespect in ancient Egypt, that no scientific records of the bust appear until 11 years after its supposed discovery in 1923 and, while the paint pigments are ancient, the inner limestone core has never been dated.

French archaeologists present at the site as well never mentioned the finding and neither did written accounts of the digs. In 2009, director of Berlin's Egyptian Museum, Dietrich Wildung, dismissed the claims of forgery. Egyptian authorities also dismissed Stierlin's theory, with Hawass remarking that "Stierlin is not a historian. He is delirious."

Although Stierlin had argued "Egyptians cut shoulders horizontally" and Nefertiti had vertical shoulders, Hawass said that the new style seen in the bust is part of the changes introduced by Akhenaten, the husband of Nefertiti. In 2003, the Egyptian Museum in Berlin allowed the Hungarian artist duo Little Warsaw, András Gálik and Bálint Havas, to place the bust atop a nearly nude female bronze for a video installation to be shown at the Venice Biennale modern art festival.

The artists said the project, called Body of Nefertiti, was an attempt to pay homage to the bust. In 2016 a freedom of information request was made to the Egyptian Museum for access to a full colour scan of the bust that had been made by the museum 10 years prior. The museum declined the request citing impact on gift shop revenue.

In 1930, the German press described the bust as their new monarch, personifying it as a queen. As the "'most precious ...

Here is a table summarizing the key events in the history of the Nefertiti Bust:

Year	Event
1912	The Nefertiti Bust was discovered in Amarna by a German archaeological team led by Ludwig Borchardt.
1913	The bust was shipped to Berlin and presented to James Simon, who lent it to the Berlin Museum.
1920	The bust was permanently donated to the Berlin Museum.
1924	The bust was publicly displayed as part of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, gaining worldwide recognition.
1945	The American Army found the bust and gave it to the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives branch.
1946	The bust was put on public display at the Central Collecting Point in Wiesbaden.
1956	The bust was transferred to the Dahlem Museum in West Berlin.
Since 1924	Egyptian authorities have demanded the return of the bust to Egypt.