Nefertiti bust not up for discussion on Egypt trip, museum says

A Berlin museum stressed on Friday that Egypt had made no formal request for the bust of Queen Nefertiti to be returned, ahead of an upcoming trip to Cairo, DPA reported.

Berlin's Egyptian Museum denied media reports that negotiations were to take place over the exquisite, 3,500-year-old limestone sculpture during the inaugural visit to Egypt by museum director Friederike Seyfried, who took office in August.

In the coming days, Seyfried is to discuss joint future projects with Zahi Hawass, the Egyptian antiquities chief, the museum said.

This could include lending Nefertiti to Egypt, to go on exhibition for a fixed period. The Berlin museum is currently checking whether the 3,500-year-old bust is fit to travel.

The Berlin museum chief is also due to hand over documents dated January 1913, detailing the excavation during which Nefertiti was discovered.

These documents clearly demonstrated that the Prussian state legally acquired the sculpture, negating any Egyptian claim to the pharaonic bust, the museum said.

The bust is the most famed artefact in the Egyptology collection, housed in the newly reopened Neues Museum in the heart of Berlin.

Cairo claims it was moved out of Egypt nearly a century ago without alerting inspectors to its true worth, and is seeking its return.