Recently found documents show that a German archaeologist had smuggled a unique 3,400-year-old Egyptian statue into Germany in 1913.
Discovered at the German Oriental Institute, the documents contain the account of a meeting between German archaeologist, Ludwig Borchhardt and a senior Egyptian official on January 20, 1913.
Borchhardt, who listed the bust of Queen Nefertiti among his finds in Egypt, hid the true value of the statue and described it as a worthless piece of gypsum, Timesonline reported.
He hid the bust in a poorly lit chamber to fool the chief antiquities inspector, Gustave Lefebvre and handed over a deliberately unflattering photograph.
Housed at Berlin's Egyptian Museum, the limestone bust of Queen Nefertiti - wife of the Sun King Akhenaten - attracts over half a million visitors every year.
Egyptian curators have drawn up petitions against the trickery and the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, Zahi Hawass, has said that the country “will make the lives of these [German] museums miserable."
Germans however insist on keeping the relic as a German property and blame Egyptians for not being careful about their ancient relics.
"It is not right to complain now about a deal that was struck long ago," said a spokesman for the Oriental Institute.
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