THE MYSTERIES OF THE NEFERTITI BUST | France 3 | Enquêtes d'Archéologie

It has all the aspects of a real police investigation: methods, scenario, and form. This new encounter takes you into the mysteries of Nefertiti. Since its discovery in 1912, the beauty of the bust of Nefertiti has entered into legend and is still raising questions. Who is Nefertiti? Where does she come from? What’s her history? What were the circumstances of the discovery of her bust? Why has it been the object of so much desire since 1912? Is it a copy? What do science and the experts tell us? “It’s useless to describe it… you have to see it!” wrote Ludwig Borchardt, the German Egyptologist who discovered the bust of Nefertiti in Tell el Amarna in 1912. Since then, Nefertiti’s beauty has become legendary and raises a thousand questions. At 50 cm high and cut off vertically at the shoulders, the work is a rarity, “a miracle of equilibrium”. A century after its discovery, the bust is at the centre of several polemic debates. After years of research, Henri Stierin, a Swiss historian, puts forward the scandalous theory that the bust of Nefertiti is no more than an experimental copy! On the other hand, Zahi Hawass, Superintendant of Egyptian Antiquities is claiming its return and accuses Germany of the illegal export of a masterpiece. So, must Germany return this world-renowned bust? In the course of this archaeological investigation, Jamy and his guests try to answer the many questions that surround the bust of Nefertiti…