One Egyptian archaeologist demanded the return of the bust of Nefertiti from Germany.
Renowned expert Zahi Hawass has launched a petition demanding the return of the iconic 3,000-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti to Egypt.
The bust, currently on display at the Neues Museum in Berlin, Germany, was discovered by a team of German archaeologists in 1912 and shipped to Europe soon after.
Hawass argued that the sculpture was illegally removed from Egypt and belongs to its country of origin.
The petition, which has already gathered nearly 2,000 signatures, calls for the bust to be returned as part of Egypt’s ongoing effort to reclaim its historical artifacts.
In a statement to NBC News, Hawass, a former Egyptian minister of antiquities, said that “this bust was illegally removed from Egypt” and reiterated the piece’s incomparable historical and aesthetic value.
The painted limestone bust of Queen Nefertiti was found in Tell el-Amarna, the ancient capital of her husband, Pharaoh Akhenaten.
The sculpture was removed from Egypt in 1913 and then hidden during World War II.
After the war it was transferred to the Egyptian Museum in West Berlin, and in 2009 it was transferred to the Neues Museum, where it remains one of the museum’s main attractions.
While Hawass praised the German government for preserving the bust, he said it was time for it to return to its rightful home.
“This bust, unparalleled in history for its historical and aesthetic value, is in Germany, but it is time for it to return to Egypt,” he said in a statement on September 7.
Express.co.uk has contacted the Neues Museum for comment.
This is not the first time Egypt has sought the return of its ancient treasures.
In 2021, the country successfully recovered more than 5,000 artifacts stolen from around the world.
Most recently, in January 2023, the Houston Museum of Natural Science returned a 2,000-year-old wooden sarcophagus after U.S. authorities determined it had been illegally removed from Egypt.
Despite these efforts, Egypt has not always managed to recover its cultural heritage.
In 2022, another petition to return the Dendera Zodiac from the Louvre in Paris gathered more than 2.2 million signatures, but the artifact remains in France.