Famed Nefertiti bust a fake: expert

The Australian ^ | May 05, 2009 | Agence France-Presse

[SunkenCiv]

Swiss art historian Henri Stierlin, author of a dozen works on Egypt, the Middle East and ancient Islam, says in a just-released book that the bust currently in Berlin's Altes Museum was made on the orders of Germany archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt on site at the digs by an artist named Gerardt Marks... He said he believed it was made to test pigments used by the ancient Egyptians. The historian said the archaeologist had hoped to produce a new portrait of the queen wearing a necklace he knew she had owned and also carry out a colour test with ancient pigments found at the digs. But on December 6, 1912, the copy was much admired as an original work by a German prince and the archaeologist "couldn't sum up the courage to ridicule" his guests, Mr Stierlin said... "The bust has no left eye and was never crafted to have one. This is an insult for an ancient Egyptian who believed the statue was the person themself." He also said the shoulders were cut vertically in the style practised since the 19th century while "Egyptians cut shoulders horizontally" and that the features were accentuated in a manner recalling that of Art Nouveau. It was impossible to scientifically establish the date of the bust because it was made of stone covered in plaster, he said. "The pigments, which can be dated, are really ancient," he added.

[SunkenCiv]

Where's that "moonbat" graphic when you really need it?

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Methinks the guy overdosed on cheese and hot chocolate. Anyway, here's something related that's kinda fun: Nefertiti "restored" To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[Redcitizen]

implants. ;)

[Miss Marple]

[ottbmare]

Hope he’s wrong.

[JoeProBono]

[Verginius Rufus]

Next someone will prove that Michelangelo sculpted the Laocoon, and the Venus de Milo is really a statue of Hera.

There is a theory that the famous "Mask of Agamemnon" from the Shaft Graves at Mycenae is not ancient but a fake done at Heinrich Schliemann's behest, but so far I don't think it has a lot of adherents.

[PghBaldy]

You know, I never thought of it before, but it seems awfully “European” and modern for a supposedly ancient Egyptian bust.

[BunnySlippers]

I agree. Plausible.

[dr_lew]

There is a theory that the famous "Mask of Agamemnon" from the Shaft Graves at Mycenae is not ancient but a fake done at Heinrich Schliemann's behest, but so far I don't think it has a lot of adherents.

I've read some accounts of Schliemann's excavations, and the whole thing does come across as very iffy. He just kind of pulled that thing out of, uh, nowhere. It seems strange to me that he retains the credibility that he does.

[Cincinna]

Thanks, Civ

There are so many fake works of art and antiquities in Museums, Princely collections, and private collections around the world.

Museums are constantly changing attribution of famous works. The fact is that they just don’t know. People who paid a small fortune for their art collection are reluctant to admit they were duped, and the game goes on and on.

[Verginius Rufus]

There are some serious questions about Schliemann's veracity. The doubts about the authenticity of the mask seem to have been raised first by William Calder III, a professor of Classics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. David Traill has also done work on this question.

Google "behind the mask of Agamemnon" and it will take you to an issue of Archaeology where several experts debate the issue.

[SunkenCiv]

This talk of its being a fake won’t stop the Egyptians from claiming their predecessors were duped into allowing it to be removed from the country. ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

Definitely. About ten years ago an old codger art critic went on a rampage claiming that many of the most famous ancient works were fakes, and further claimed that in private, the curators were well aware they were fake. About thirty years ago a guy faked a brewster chair (and the process by which he did it was clearly described in a later article, the fraud was *brilliant* in its thoroughness), planted it in an antique store frequented by some curators, and the “find” wound up on the cover of the glossy full color annual report of the Detroit art museum. :’) He did it just to prove a point. (’:

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

An Ancient Masterpiece or a Master’s Forgery?
(Did by Michelangelo Sculpt the Laocoon?)
New York Times | April 18, 2005 | KATHRYN SHATTUCK
Posted on 04/19/2005 12:08:30 AM PDT by nickcarraway
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1386416/posts

Famed Roman statue ‘not ancient’ [ Romulus and Remus and she-wolf ]
BBC News | Thursday, July 10, 2008 | unattributed
Posted on 07/11/2008 6:29:54 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2044256/posts

[SunkenCiv]

The fact is, the Egyptians were very good sculptors; we’re mostly more familiar with their kinda odd use of proportion and perspectives in their paintings and reliefs. But here’s an excellent example (well, a bunch) of much older (4th Dynasty, no question about provenance, some were photographed in situ at discovery) “reserve heads”, which were found interred near (for example) the Great Pyramid — and remain mysterious and unexplained.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Reserve_head

[SunkenCiv]

With all due respect to my fellow FReepers and the profs that cooked up the “faked masks” fiction, it’s, uh, fiction. I attribute it to the near-mania of the British regarding Schliemann. Schliemann definitely liked being taken seriously, and may have been morbidly sensitive to criticism (and he certainly received far more than anyone’s fair share of it during his career as an archaeologist, almost from day one), leading him to embellish (at best) his account of finding the “jewels of Helen”, but the treasure itself was indeed found (Sophie wasn’t there, whereas in his account she was; it wasn’t all found in one spot or on a single day) and is indeed authentic and ancient (it was stolen by the USSR and remains locked up in Russia somewhere).

Other finds of such masks have been made, including in much more recent digs in Thracian sites, and there’s never been a question about those AFAIK.

[SunkenCiv]

;’)

[SunkenCiv]

Pretty sure he is.

Here’s another (partial) ancient bust of Nefertiti:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nefertiti_busto.jpg

kinda cool mystery type page:

Adolph Hitler’s Mysterious Nefertiti (NOFRETETE) Found?
http://shangri-la.0catch.com/press/nefertiti.html

[Verginius Rufus]

I may have missed the Shattuck story about the Laocoon statue. I vaguely recall the report about the she-wolf. I’ve seen that close-up in the Capitoline Museum in Rome—it’s very impressive. Of course if it is ancient, it may have nothing to do with the Romulus and Remus story.