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Berlin (dpa) - The bust of Queen Nefertiti, often hailed as the world's most beautiful woman despite the lack of one eye, will not be sent back to Egypt where it was found, a Berlin museum spokesman said Thursday.
"At 3,000 years old, the lady is no longer interested in travel," said the spokesman in a deft exchange of courtesies, hours after the visiting director of Egypt's Antiquities Administration had suggested she was homesick.
The painted limestone bust has been one of Berlin's greatest treasures since it arrived in the German capital over 90 years ago.
Director Zahi Hawass had mentioned Egypt's desire for the bust in the presence of Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak at the opening Thursday of a touring exhibition of Egyptian artefacts found under water.
Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, president of the Prussian Cultural Foundation that operates Berlin's main federal museums, said the contract of acquisition was "unambiguous, clear in international law and recognized by all concerned."
Nefertiti, also known as Nofretete, was acquired in 1913 from the Ottoman Empire by James Simon, a Berlin financier and amateur archaeologist. The bust is currently in the Altes Museum. From 2009 it is to be displayed in a new Egyptology exhibition at the Neues Museum.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
