Los secretos del Busto de Nefertiti | Doblado Español

It's the 16th of October 2009. In the east of Berlin, the newly restored Neues Museum is about to reopen. The museum houses the finest collection of Egyptian artefacts in Germany.

However, the biggest draw is the arrival of one of Egypt's most famous queens, the bust of Nefertiti. It's a masterpiece that had been on display in the old museum in Berlin for 20 years. Now Nefertiti is moving homes to become the star attraction in the Neues Museum.

I think it's an absolute masterpiece and certainly timeless. It really is perfection and full of aesthetic value. One sees the perfect beauty.

Where does it come from? The life made her a star. It's a little like the Mona Lisa.

It is the icon of the Egyptian identity. Nefertiti is over 3,000 years old. Tremendous care is taken to ensure no damage is done to the flawless face.

That she is in such good shape is one of the enigmas in the history of archaeological discoveries. But the party is spoilt by some news from Geneva that is widely reported in the media that the bust of Nefertiti is a fake. The controversial claim comes after a 20 year long inquiry conducted by author and historian Henri Stierlin.

I've no doubt in my mind that this is a fake, a copy, a phony or a model. What first made the academics dubious was the unique state of conservation of Nefertiti's bust when it was discovered. The object was incongruous.

It bore no resemblance to any other 3,300 year old busts from Egypt. To historian Henri Stierlin, the bust of Nefertiti is simply too well preserved, or, as he puts it, too new to be true. Then there is a second bust found lying alongside that of Nefertiti.

It's a bust of her husband, the Pharaoh Akhenaten. It's completely disfigured. Why should there be a contrast in the state of the busts which were found at the same time, at the same place?

Is Nefertiti a fake? In Montpellier in southern France, archaeologist and egyptologist Marc Gabolde, who is also an expert on Nefertiti, considers Stierlin's claims. I have to say he was right to ask the question, but the arguments he's provided aren't necessarily sufficient.

If he can give me some strong scientific arguments that it is a forgery, then I would accept it. There's certainly some doubts. In the basement of the Neues Museum in Berlin, a news conference is being held.

The journalists are taking notes, but there are no questions about the charges of authenticity. In Germany, such accusations are considered taboo because the bust, found a century ago in Egypt by German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt, has now become a symbol in Germany. Nevertheless, we did ask the question to Neues Museum director, Friederike Seyfried.

When you stand before the bust, the question never even enters your mind. It goes without saying it's authentic. The real question is, why would it be a fake?

Numerous archaeologists, Americans, Italians, French expressed their doubts about whether the bust is real, but none of them have made their doubts official. So we have decided to stage our own inquiry. Everyone's being very circumspect.

No one has dared come right out and openly state the object to be a fake. Is the most famous bust of ancient Egypt a phony? To find out, we met with the greatest experts, subjected the bust to a lie detector and retraced history.

What we uncovered during our inquiry will forever change your opinion about Egypt's most mysterious queen and her likeness, the bust of Nefertiti. Who was Nefertiti? It's one of the great mysteries of Egypt's pharaonic past.

Eras of archaeologists have scoured through all the monuments, gone through each hieroglyphic on each column and temple wall in an attempt to find the least evidence of her existence. Archaeologists went up the Nile as far as Karnak, probing one of the country's largest sacred centers for any traces of Queen Nefertiti. In this labyrinth of columns and temples, they finally found the first image of the Queen.

It was chiseled directly into a stone from a now-lost temple. However, nothing is known of Nefertiti's origins. She was probably Egyptian, almost certainly, the wife of the 18th dynasty Pharaoh, the great Akhenaten.

Nefertiti was the principal wife of Akhenaten. She was the only one who had the right to the title, Great Spouse of the King. We know the Queen's sisters and we know of her nurse, but we know nothing about the origins of Nefertiti's family.

To be honest, we don't know. She's the queen of Egypt, of whom we have the most models and documents, but also the one of whom we know the least. It's not known who Nefertiti's parents were, but what's striking is her remarkable beauty with a face that at first appears so contemporary.

It's thanks to her husband, Akhenaten, the heretic and rebel that her name has survived. The Pharaoh has gone down in history for having imposed Aton, the Sun God, as the only deity and getting rid of the many Egyptian gods. During his reign in the 18th dynasty, Akhenaten has new temples built, many of them open to the skies to allow the sun's beneficial rays to shine through.

In his new religion, Akhenaten develops a cult of personality as he and the Sun God gradually become the same being. Nefertiti and Akhenaten were also the most romantic of all the Pharaonic couples. Their love for each other began at a very young age.

On the statuaries, their age has given as 14. For the first time, the people witnessed two adolescence masters of an empire holding hands. They are portrayed as being very much in love, or the more astonishing are the images of the king and queen embracing.

They are depicted on the Royal Chariot and Akhenaten is kissing Nefertiti. The Queen is shown placing a necklace around the king's neck and he seizes the moment to give her a peck on the cheek. It's a very intimate moment and must reflect a true love story.

In the seventh year of their reign, Akhenaten and Nefertiti relocate from Karnak and set up at Tell El Amarna in the middle of the desert. There they built a new royal city, they call Akhetaten, which means the Sun's horizon. The famous couple in the history of Egypt lived in a modern city that was built quickly with space for 50,000 inhabitants.

A city dotted with temples that had no roofs. Akhenaten and Nefertiti often spent their time worshipping the Sun God. The reign of Akhenaten and Nefertiti will last only 17 years.

After their deaths, their successors will destroy all trace of their existence and dismantle the palaces brick by brick. In less than 30 years, the city will disappear back into the desert. You might say it's the Pompeii of the sands.

When you dig through the 18th Dynasty's buildings the only time they were occupied was during the era of Akhenaten. Just over 15 years. It gives one a real snapshot of life in Egypt back then.

It was in this five by ten kilometer rectangle of desert that on the 6th of December 1912, the bust of Nefertiti emerged whole from the middle of nowhere. Ludwig Borchardt was born in Berlin in 1863. He became the most famous archaeologist of his day.

Egypt, its monuments and architecture fascinated Borchardt. In 1906, the German archaeologist organizes a dig in the remains of Akhenaten's City. A ghost town, according to some, but the site of a terrible act of vandalism to the archaeologists.

Borchardt is persuaded he'll make the discovery of the century. On the 6th of December 1912, surrounded by his team, he will uncover the find of a lifetime, celebrated bust of Nefertiti. The statuette carved from limestone was found just 50 centimeters below some gravel.

Borchardt has resurrected a remarkably lifelike and technicolour queen. How did archaeologist Borchardt make this masterpiece appear out of nowhere? Before the arrival of the German, Akhenaten's ancient city had been the virtual preserve of the British and their chief archaeologist, Sir Flinders Petrie, who had led major excavations on the site in 1891 and 1892.

They had opened tombs, unearthed the magnificent frescoes of senior officials, and uncovered the foundations of palaces. However, they had never run into anything like the magnificent bust of Nefertiti. When Borchardt's archaeological expedition showed up, it made the British sneer.

They are convinced the German will find absolutely nothing. Flinders Petrie was already there. He stopped at the end of the 19th century working in Tell el-Amarna.

For him, he was through. He had the idea it is done and there's nothing to find anymore. As we know, this was not true.

Borchardt came to Amarna initially because he saw it as a major source of information on domestic architecture. At the back of his mind was the fact that he had close connections with the Berlin Museum. He rather wanted something spectacular to bring back to Berlin.

At the start of the 20th century, Egypt was the world's largest hunting ground for archaeologists. Prussia had lagged behind in the race for treasures. Kaiser William ordered Borchardt to return with a trophy, whatever the cost.

Before excavations begin, the clever archaeologist seeks the advice of Cairo's leading antiquarians, many of whom do business with looters. He's told that part of Akhenaten's ancient city has yet to be excavated. Borchardt is also an architect, and before arriving he'd drawn up floor plans for the southeast sector.

Once inhabited by artisans, but untouched by both the British and the looters. He's interested in housing, so he starts by digging through the larger villas. These can be distinguished on the site by the small mounds.

Later, he extends the dig to include all the houses. By an unusual stroke of luck, he uncovers the offices and the house of the sculptor Thutmosis, one of the highlights of his excavations. Borchardt soon realizes he's come across a property that includes several sculptors' studios.

Excited, the archaeologist decides to dig through every square inch of the gardens. Behind the silos he identifies the house of the senior craftsman Thutmosis, the personal sculptor of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. It was here that Borchardt is said to have found the bust.

Intrigued, we retrace the steps, one century later, of archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt and search out the house where the bust was discovered. Tell El Amarna is a five hour drive south of Cairo, Akhenaten and Nefertiti's ghost town. Joining us is Luke Vautrin, an expert in ancient Egyptian works of art who was employed by the courts to identify forged pieces.

Egyptian archaeologist Amada is the inspector general of the dig at Tell El Amarna. Here as you can see, is Borchardt's report on the excavation. As you can see, this is the official report made after the excavation by Borchardt.

There's nothing. Luke Vautrin has an exceptional document, the notes and sketches of archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt, in which he writes extensively of his discovery of the bust in 1912. The document will prove invaluable in tracing the exact spot where Nefertiti's bust was uncovered.

Look, Patrick, now we arrived at the house of Thutmosis. This is a very important house which Ludwig Burkhardt, on 6th December 1912, found the bust of Nefertiti, which is now in Berlin Museum. This is what remains 3,300 years later of the studio of Thutmosis, the chief sculptor.

It's in one of these rooms that Borchardt reportedly found the bust. With a map, archaeologist Luke Vautrin interprets the site. This is quite moving since this is the villa's reception room.

It's almost certain that this is where the owner would have entertained his special guests, senior officials, and why not Queen Nefertiti herself? If you leave the room in that direction, here we get to the sculptor's studio and behind the door, and Borchardt's notes are very precise about this, it's right here in this corner that he found the bust of the queen. According to Borchardt, Nefertiti was here buried for more than 3,200 years, yet still so realistic.

That's not all, because the house of Akhenaten's sculptor, turns out to be filled with treasures. Borchardt finds other pieces, the finest pack of busts from the period. Plaster masks, strangely lifelike, and models of studios like Akhenaten's, a model that's incomplete, and the famous bust of Akhenaten himself found lying next to Nefertiti's.

Ludwig Borchardt donates all his finest trophies to the museum in Berlin. In all this archaeological fairy tale, there's one detail that grabs the attention of a historian. It's an element that will spark an investigation worthy of a sleuth novel.

In his colonial style house in Cairo, Ludwig Borchardt will take more than ten years before he publishes the complete report on his digs at Tell El Amarna. He tells how he found the limestone bust of Nefertiti and another bust also in limestone found alongside of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, its face ripped apart. In his topographical notes, Borchardt takes great care to note the location of the bust of Nefertiti.

He also marked where the marred bust of Akhenaten had been found. Per his drawings, the bust of Nefertiti was on a shelf in a corner of the studio. The bust of Akhenaten was the first to be found on the floor near the entrance to the left.

The passage of time caused the outer wall to crumble and the bust of Nefertiti with it. Akhenaten's bust was found in several pieces, while strangely Nefertiti's was intact, almost as if it had just left the sculptor's studio. The whole story was pure deception made up by Borchardt.

That was the conclusion of Swiss historian, Henri Stierlin, who had investigated the case for 20 years. He questions Borchardt's report and concludes that Nefertiti was "simply too beautiful to be authentic. " How is it possible that such a heavy object, that such a delicate object, so finely painted could have fallen like Borchardt claims from a shelf about a meter and a half from the floor onto stones and rubble without being damaged?

Especially since he claims it fell face down. Then he says it's such a delicate object. It's hardly possible that only the ears were damaged.

Besides, the ears wouldn't even have hit the floor when the object fell. When his inquiry began in 1984, Henri Stierlin expressed his doubts to Dietrich Wildung, one of the greatest German archaeologists and beyond all reproach at the time, the director of the museum in Munich. Wildung had studied the bust for years and shares Stierlin's doubts.

He had written a letter to Stierlin. In the letter that he wrote he said, "My project was valid and persuasive. " Here, let me quote you word for word.

He writes, [German schlussig und uberzeugend] In other words, convincing and coherent. In the letter, Dietrich Wildung also admits to his own suspicions about the state of conservation of the Nefertiti bust and that its style was not consistent with the Akhenaten period and that he was even willing to write the introduction to his report. Then in 1989, he's named the curator of the bust of Nefertiti and makes a dramatic U-turn.

Then Wildung, suddenly sends me another letter in which he says he's been named the director of the Berlin Museum where the Nefertiti bust is housed. The whole issue has now taken on a different meaning and that he was distancing himself from the inquiry and therefore could no longer get involved. However, to me, the most worrying thing was when two representatives came down from Berlin to persuade me to stop my research.

Historian Henri Stierlin is not someone who is easily intimidated and will continue his relentless investigation, albeit now totally isolated. Fascinated by the story, we head back to Berlin for a meeting with Dietrich Wildung. On the eve of our interview, the archaeological expert decides to cancel.

We call back, faking we haven't received his message. Hello, Wildung here. Mr Dietrich Wildung.

Yes. I'm calling because we have a meeting arranged for tomorrow about Nefertiti. I wanted to know what time we can get together.

I sent an email out today in which I absolutely refuse to talk about that object. Otherwise, I might have serious difficulties. We learnt that the German authorities have formally forbidden Wildung to talk about Nefertiti's bust or to mention Henri Stierlin's research.

To the historian, the bust of Nefertiti was the result of an experiment. Borchardt had a copy of the bust made since he wanted to examine sculpting techniques on plaster and in particular how the Egyptians had used color. In fact, he had at his disposal materials that had been found during the excavations at Tell El Amarna.

He had everything on site. Plaster is fairly easy to make and it's impossible to date. The stone it's made from is found all over Egypt.

It's a country of limestone. You can use a large piece of limestone and then make it the size you need. After that, you put the plaster on.

Then let the sculptor do his work and make a good copy. He had a great number of faces he could copy from authentic objects that had been found. Like this bust, an unfinished, but authentic model of Nefertiti, which was also discovered in Thutmosis' studio.

It has traces of carbon showing what still needed to be sculpted. Did Borchardt use a model like this one found on site, which he then had painted? Borchardt is very precise in his notes from the dig.

He states he found large quantities of pigments, adding they were all still quite usable. However, if this was an experimental copy, how is it Borchardt never spoke of it to his team, nor in his meticulous notes? According to the historian, on the 5th of December 1912, the archaeologist was in Cairo.

He learns that a German princely family is passing through and wants to visit his archaeological digs. Caught unprepared, Borchardt rushes back to Tell El-Amarna. He arrives on the 6th of December, 1912, which was meant to be a day off for his workers.

He immediately sets them back to work. Later, he proudly shows their highnesses the fruits of his labor. In an excess of zeal, one of the dig foreman, an Egyptian called Sanusi, disappears briefly during the visit.

Then returns with a bust of Nefertiti. The Royals are pleased with a masterpiece and a photograph immortalizes the moment leaving Borchardt no time to explain it was a copy and not the real thing. Henri Stierlin claims the photo is what trapped the archaeologist.

You couldn't just tell the royal visitors who were enthusing over the object. Listen, you're mistaken. It's ridiculous.

It would make a mockery of the royals. It was simply not possible to tell the truth or the royals might have been covered in ridicule and that would have been lese majesty or treason. Which at the time was very serious and could have ruined Borchardt's career and life for good.

After the Royals left the bust mysteriously disappears for almost 11 years. Borchardt reportedly gave it to his sponsor, James Simon. It was the wealthy tycoon who had funded part of his expedition to Tell El Amarna.

They were so excited, James, when he got the message that they'd found this beautiful figure. It was a great anticipation here in Berlin waiting for it to come back. The bust sat on his coffee table for almost ten years sitting in his home.

From 1912 to 1924, Borchardt systematically refuses to show the queen in public. At first, I didn't realize the missing eye was such an insult to her image and dignity. A one-eyed Nefertiti, definitely a crime of treason and sacrilege against the pharaonic image of the great queen of Egypt.

To find out more, we visit the University of Liege in Belgium. There, Dimitri Laborie, one of the greatest specialists of the art and archaeology of ancient Egypt, gives us his expert opinion. It's a tool, like an artist's dummy.

A studio model used so the sculptor can reproduce faithful copies of the sanctioned image of Nefertiti that had been backed by Akhenaten and probably Nefertiti herself. The Bust and many others like it were, says Prof. Laborie, communication tools.

The official portrait of the Queen had to be instantly recognizable to the priests and the people in both upper and lower Egypt. As to the fact one eye was missing, according to the experts, that was purely another model. To show the exact depth it was necessary to sculpt to correctly inlay Nefertiti's eyes.

Dimitri Laborie says the royal bust was a typical studio model of the Akhenaten family style. If you look at Akhenaten's mouth and you look at the mouths of the Armenian princesses and you look at that of Nefertiti's father-in-law, they're shaped differently, in the same sensual and aesthetical form. The key argument in favor of the bust's authenticity has in fact been disproved by one of Germany's best Egyptologists, Rolf Krauss.

What we know is that the bust was made according to specific proportions. Not just any proportions, but those of the Egyptian finger. In Britain and the USA, the foot and the inch are used in the measuring system.

The Egyptians used the finger as a point of reference. To create a new bust, Akhenaten's sculptor is believed to have first drawn up a reference grid for sculptors all across Egypt. Each line was based on the width of a finger.

The bust of Nefertiti had to correspond to these measurements. Rolf Krauss also proved how certain cross-sections systematically corresponded to precise facial anatomical points. The base of the nose, for example, or the mouth.

In this way, the face length would be calibrated with the base of the chin to the headdress. She's made based on propotions calculated on the Egyptian unit of measurement of 1. 875 centimeters, the Egyptian finger.

She's built metrically. The counterfeiter at the time would have had to know how to use the Egyptian centimeter and not the modern one. The proportional grid would have allowed regulated production of the bust of Nefertiti across Egypt.

Apparently, the forgers at the start of the 19th century weren't aware of this. There's yet another anomaly that is further proof the bust is a fake, the shoulders that are cut vertically. The arms on the bust were cut vertically and apart from some very rare exceptions, it's just not something you see in Egyptian art.

Busts are cut horizontally, at the level of the shoulders, and not vertically. Is the bust of Nefertiti with its shoulders cut vertically, the only artwork of its kind in Egyptian history? To seek an answer, it's back to Berlin's Neues Museum.

The director, Fried Seyfried, says there is one other example of a bust cut vertically. It's this one also discovered by Borchardt in 1912 and part of a collection of objects that's never been put on public display. Upset at the scandal created by Stierlin's book, Fried Seyfried rummaged through the entire storage of the museum to find the famous bust, or at least what's left of it.

Yes, it is possible to see other examples of busts with cut shoulders vertically. This one is from the excavations at Tell El Amarna. You can still see the line that shows the central axis and you can clearly see the shoulders cut like the colored queen's.

A second bust does exist with the same cuts of the shoulders. In the spat between experts, is this a sufficiently strong argument to finally prove the authenticity of Queen Nefertiti? In Berlin, the Neues Museum, in an effort to put an end to the rumor mill once and for all, has decided to submit the bust of Nefertiti to a lie detector test.

Can science finally prove it's genuine? The bust has been transferred to a hospital in Berlin to undergo a scan. What Nefertiti has in her brain may finally be revealed.

The first observation is the bust is made up of a limestone lump. A lump covered in the plaster, a method that allowed the sculptor or counterfeiter to change certain parts of the bust. It's proof Nefertiti was altered.

Here you can clearly see the shoulder viewed from behind. The white part is limestone. What you see below it in gray is plaster, put on after the sculpture was finished.

It's been added to make some corrections. What's absolutely clear from the rearview is that the right shoulder is higher than the left one. Plaster had been used to correct and reinforce the curve of the neck of the limestone Nefertiti bust.

The sculptor had even altered the cheeks and cheekbones as well as the bridge of the nose by adding some plaster there too. Was this the world's first facelift? Other than some proof of plaster surgery, what do the X-rays prove?

The tomography isn't definitive proof. By cutting out samples from inside the object, you cannot prove when it was made. You can only state there's a stone interior, and that there's a layer of plaster that's been sculpted.

However, as to when, we just can't tell. I can't tell using this method that the bust is 3,300 years old. What about the plaster itself used to cover the limestone, Nefertiti?

Does it date from the time of Akhenaten? The Germans took a sample from the bust and had it analyzed by a chemist, a specialist in ancient Egyptian objects. Several elements were found in the sample of plaster that existed only in the Armenian period or a little earlier.

The same as in the architecture and the masks. Which means the plaster mix was an invention from that era. The composition of the plaster is typical from the Amarna period.

Simply, the plaster that covers the bust of Nefertiti is indeed of the type used by Egyptians more than 3,000 years ago. When the bust was discovered, they had no way of knowing what constituents were in the plaster. The technology that allows such analysis wasn't developed until the 1950s.

A counterfeiter would have had no way of knowing the Plaster's composition. He might, though, have used plaster found during the archaeological dig in 1912. For now, though, there's no way of being sure.

There's one other scientific way to test Nefertiti's authenticity. The pigments which make the bust so vivid imitate skin color so accurately and make the mouth so sensual. Four colors dominate art in Egypt, blue, green, ochre, and yellow.

Each dynasty's artists, however, had their own techniques to mix and use pigments. By analyzing the pigments found at Tell El Amarna, can the bust be finally authenticated? The study of the pigments showed us that the colors were indeed those used in ancient Egypt and the technique of preparing the pigments were then abandoned during this period.

Here too the forger could have cheated. As you may remember, Borchardt, when he discovered Nefertiti in the studio of Thutmosis, had also uncovered a treasure trove of pigments of all colors. There were yellows, reddish ochres, light ochres and the renowned lapis lazuli blue.

By the end of Akhenaten's reign, when the sculptors and artisans abandoned their studios in Tell El Amarna, they took with them only the more important things. A large part of their reserves of pigments, of course. However, they would have left behind quite a few enough pigments maybe to decorate a queen.

Is Nefertiti real or a fake? The experts have no doubt. All the scientific and historic tests are categorical.

The materials are all authentic. However, there remains one issue a contradiction, a suspicion. None of the materials with which it's made allow the bust to be dated accurately.

No technology exists that can date stone sculptures. The Technicolor Queen of Eternal Youth will, therefore, continue to defy science for years to come and like all the great ladies of history, conceal her age. In the early part of the 20th century, enthusiastic amateurs played at being explorers following in the footsteps of the archaeologists.

The discovery of the bust of Nefertiti by Ludwig Borchardt sparked a particular craze for all objects dating from the period of Akhenaten. Unfortunately, they were very rarely available. However, it meant the forgers would be kept busy.

At around this time in Cairo, a certain Emil Bruch starts a lucrative business. He provides artists with genuine articles which they then copy or use to make fakes. It's almost too easy since at the time, Bruch was in charge of the shop at the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo.

For a while, the museum would allow its staff members, particularly the restorers, take some of the objects home with them. To study them, as it were. Some of the restorers became remarkably accomplished forgers.

Today, their identity is largely unknown, apart from some rare photographs such as this 1910 image of two known counterfeiters. One is Paolo Dingli from Malta, variously a painter, sculptor, and forger. Dingli exercised his skills at home.

Curiously, Ludwig Borchardt was known to visit him on a regular basis. One of Borchardt's obligations was to act as a buyer for museums back in Germany. In those days forgery was a flourishing business.

It was crucial not to buy the wrong things. There were many forgers back then and today it's hard to calculate how much counterfeit stuff they produced. The question remains about if some museums are still displaying some of their fakes.

There's not one museum anywhere in the world that doesn't have forgeries. The quality of some of the fakes was exceptionally high and there are no guarantees that even the experts wouldn't be taken in. We all have something in stock that's a fake.

Fakes that for the most part date back to the 1920s. Modern Cairo and its 16 million inhabitants. Are there still forgers as talented as the earlier generation in the city?

To get the answer, we contacted one of them. Luke Vautrin, an archaeologist and an expert on forgeries, comes with us as we head out of Cairo towards Memphis. We're going to Memphis, which is 25km south of Cairo.

It's an area that has many studios where some of Egypt's best forgers live and work. It might be risky, we have to be careful, but by speaking Arabic, we should be able to win their trust fairly easily. The counterfeiters headquarters in the Cairo suburbs is at Mit Rahina, a poor area where no tourist ever goes.

To establish contact with the forgers we pretend to be buyers acting on behalf of rich collectors. Mudia doesn't have his own studio yet. He works from home.

At the moment he's working with limestone. He suggests sculpting a small Pharaoh's head in less than ten minutes. Do you see how fast he is?

Look at the technique he's using and the points of reference he uses. The limestone he's chosen is very soft. Using a simple rasp, Mudia completes his demonstration in just a few minutes.

Then he soaks the sculpture in water to make the veins and the limestone stand out. The result is convincing. One can imagine what this young forger could achieve over two months working in granite or other type of rock, copying from an original work.

It's good. Ask him whether if I bring him an original work, he could make an exact copy of it. Yes, I can copy it.

No problem, I can show you something I've done already. To convince us he would make a good supplier, Mudia shows us a bust in rose granite, which he's using to sharpen his skills and which he's copied just from a photograph. The stone Mudia is using is 3,000 years old.

It would certainly fool the experts. Where does it come from? How can you get hold of stone that dates back to the Pharaohs' time?

The answer lies a short distance from Mudia's house. These are the ruins of a temple that dates back to the time of Ramesses II. It's not the only one, just part of the Great Temple of Path from the Ramesses' period.

The site lies abandoned and unsupervised in the center of Maitrejean, an open air mine for the forgers. The remains of ancient Egypt are there for the picking. In a few years, nothing will be left.

Everything will have been pillaged, just forgeries sculpted from the legs of Ramesses II or in this column of hieroglyphics. These at least, are genuine. Berlin, March 2011, 18 months after the opening of the Neues Museum.

Visitors flock in their thousands to see the best ambassador Egypt has ever sent to Germany, Queen Nefertiti, the German's very own Mona Lisa. On the far side of the Mediterranean, the latest success of the star exhibit at the Neues has stirred anger and renewed nationalist sentiments. At the end of the main gallery of Cairo's big museum, the most powerful man in the world of egyptology has agreed to be interviewed in the hall dedicated to the great Pharaoh Akhenaten and his wife, Nefertiti.

He doesn't mince his words. For almost two years, we studied everything until we have a proof that the bust of Nefertiti in Berlin was taken illegally out of Egypt. The bust of Nefertiti should be in this museum and not in Berlin.

Did the Germans steal the bust of Nefertiti? Zahi Hawass has made a serious charge. At the start of the 20th century, the custom was that objects found during digs were equally divided between the archaeologists and the state of Egypt.

Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, says Ludwig Borchardt cheated when it came to Nefertiti. In that time, there was a protocol that anything for kings and queens to be discovered at Amarna cannot leave Egypt. In January 1913, the Egyptian authorities asked a Frenchman, Gustave Lefebvre, to ensure the equal partition of Borchardt's treasures.

It was Lefebvre who decided to give Nefertiti to the Germans. Why did a Frenchman, of all people, agree to let the most beautiful statuette in Egyptian history leave for a Berlin museum? Here's the official version, according to the Germans.

On the 17th of January, 1913, Gustave Lefebvre leaves Cairo for Tell El Amarna. The excavations had already ended a month before. Every object the Germans had found had been inventoried, labeled and packed, ready to leave for the museum in Berlin.

Ludwig Borchardt is waiting for Lefebvre. The German is tense, scared that the Frenchman might confiscate his prized possession, Queen Nefertiti. We know what happened that evening, thanks to Bruno Guterbock, an eyewitness to the dividing of the spoils and one of Borchardt's colleagues.

He described what happened in detail in a letter. Guterbock says the cases were opened and they looked through everything. I wasn't there, and neither were you.

We can't say this is what really took place. However, Gustave Lefebvre made his choices. On what basis did Lefebvre act?

Why did he allow the Germans to take the bust of Nefertiti? According to eyewitness, Guterbock, Borchardt outmaneuvered the younger Frenchman. He knew Lefebvre wasn't interested in sculptures, but was an expert in ancient writings.

To stop Lefebvre rummaging through the case in which he had packed Nefertiti, Borchardt shows him object number one. Which he says is his principal discovery. It's a coloured stone tablet portraying Akhenaten and Nefertiti and the princesses.

Lefebvre seizes the chance to study the hieroglyphic inscriptions. Still, according to the witness, Borchardt produced only black and white photos of the sculptures, busts of the princesses, and of course, that of Nefertiti. A majestic and royal portrait that it's unthinkable that Lefebvre wouldn't have realized that this object had to absolutely remain in Egypt.

The scandal is revealed by Rolf Krauss. The former curator of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, decides to reveal the details of how the objects were shared. He claims Lefebvre never examined the contents of the packing cases and that he was never shown the photo of Queen Nefertiti, but another photo instead.

Guterbock wrote that Lefebvre had seen a bad photo of Nefertiti. One which showed only a part of the bust, the nose, the mouth, and the eyes, but not the whole bust. The photograph was dark, it was not clear.

It was not colored like today. What Lefebvre allegedly saw then was a photo of Nefertiti without her royal headdress and necklace, resembling a princess rather than a queen. Lefebvre did have the possibility of better judging the pieces by taking them out of the travelling cases.

That way, he would have discovered the splendid bust of Nefertiti. Lefebvre was taken towards the cases, but he never asked for the objects to be taken out. He couldn't have known that among them was such a beautiful object.

Borchardt tried his best to hide the beauty of the statue, and he took it out of Egypt illegally. Did Borchardt trick Lefebvre by showing him an incomplete photo of the queen? Who cheated?

Obviously, Borchardt. Archaeologist, Rolf Krauss, believes the bust of Nefertiti should be in a museum in Cairo, but definitive proof was still lacking. We found it in this extraordinary document from 1913.

It's the official list of how the fines from Borchardt's excavations of 1912 were divided, written by Gustave Lefebvre. In the left hand column are the things selected by Lefebvre for the Cairo Museum. Object number one, the renowned painted stone tablet representing Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti playing with their daughters.

In the right hand column, among the items on their way to Berlin, object number one is listed as a bust. It's not of a queen, it's a bust of a royal princess made of painted plaster. Queen Nefertiti, therefore, never officially existed in the most infamous sharing out of spoils in Egypt's long history.

Will she ever resume her place as queen in Egypt, leaving behind her only her royal shadow?