The Bust of Nefertiti

On 6 December 1912, a German archaeological team led by Ludwig Borchardt was excavating a building in Amarna, the short-lived capital Akhenaten had built in Middle Egypt. The structure was identified as the workshop of Thutmose, a sculptor, from inscriptions found on site. Among plaster casts, unfinished statues and trial pieces, they uncovered a limestone bust of a woman in a tall blue crown, her face painted, one eye inlaid with rock crystal, the other left empty.

The bust is 49 centimetres (1 ft 7 in) tall and made of limestone coated with stucco, which was then painted. The right eye is fitted with a piece of quartz backed with beeswax to create a reflective depth. The left eye socket is bare. The pigment survives in remarkable condition: the skin is a pale ochre, the lips are red, the eyebrows and eyelid lines are black, and the blue crown retains much of its colour. The ribbon around the crown is decorated with a pattern in gold and red. A necklace is indicated by painted bands at the base of the throat.

The asymmetry is the most discussed feature. Scholars have debated whether the missing eye represents an unfinished commission, a deliberate reference model showing stages of completion, or a ritual act. The last is unlikely; there is no evidence that ancient Egyptians treated workshop models as consecrated objects requiring symbolic wounding. The first two explanations are more consistent with the context. The bust was found in a working studio, among other trial pieces and teaching aids. It may have been kept as a master model, demonstrating the technique of eye inlay to apprentices or serving as a reference for other portraits of the queen. The finished side shows what the completed work should look like; the unfinished side shows how it is made.

Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of Akhenaten, the pharaoh who briefly moved Egypt's religious centre from Thebes to Amarna and promoted the worship of the Aten, the sun disc, above the traditional pantheon. She appears frequently in the art of the period, often in positions of equal scale and prominence to the king, which is unusual. The flat-topped blue crown she wears in this bust is unique to her and appears in multiple depictions, suggesting it was a recognised attribute.

The bust remained in Thutmose's workshop when Amarna was abandoned shortly after Akhenaten's death. The city was deserted, and the building was buried under sand and rubble for more than three thousand years. When Borchardt's team found it, the bust was largely intact, though the left ear had been damaged and the uraeus — the rearing cobra that would have been fixed to the crown — was missing.

Since its discovery, the bust has been held in Germany. It was displayed publicly for the first time in 1924, and Egypt immediately requested its return. The German authorities cited a division protocol signed at the time of excavation, which they argued gave them legal title. Egypt has disputed this, claiming that the protocol was based on a misrepresentation of the bust's significance. The argument has continued for a century and remains unresolved. The bust is now in the Neues Museum in Berlin, where it was originally displayed before being moved during the Second World War for safekeeping.