Image of a bust of an ancient Egyptian ruler

The statue of Nefertiti is made of limestone and plaster.

Yana/Alamy Stock Photo (Nefertiti); Shutterstock.com (columns)

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Where Does She Belong?

The statue of an Egyptian queen is part of the debate about who owns ancient treasures.

February 17, 2025
By the editors of Scholastic News

As You Read, Think About: Who truly owns the ancient objects in museums?

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

In 1912, a German archaeologist named Ludwig Borchardt was digging in the ruins of a lost city in Egypt. In the workshop of an ancient sculptor, he made a remarkable discovery. It was a painted statue of Queen Nefertiti (neh-fer-TEE-tee), who lived nearly 3,400 years ago. 

What happened next is still being debated. Borchardt had permission to take some items he found back to Germany. But Egyptian officials say the Nefertiti statue wasn’t one of them. They claim that he smuggled it out of the country. 

Today the statue of Nefertiti is one of the best-known artifacts from ancient Egypt. It sits in a protective glass case in the Neues Museum in Berlin, Germany.

But some people think the statue belongs back in Egypt. Last fall, Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass started an online petition to have it returned to his homeland. 

This situation is not unique. Museums around the world are filled with treasures taken from distant lands. Many museums are now facing pressure to return artifacts to the countries where they were found.

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Last year, about 5 million visitors saw the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum.

Coming Home?

Hawass isn’t focused only on the statue of the ancient queen. He is also calling for the return of two other prized artifacts. One is the Dendera Zodiac, a giant stone diagram of the sky taken from the ceiling of an Egyptian temple. It is in the Louvre in Paris, France. 

The other is the Rosetta Stone, which is on display at the British Museum in London, England. The carvings on the stone helped experts understand hieroglyphs—the pictures and symbols that ancient Egyptians used to represent words.

To Egyptians, these artifacts are a source of national pride and cultural history. Hawass wants them to be displayed in the Grand Egyptian Museum. It opened last year in Cairo, Egypt’s capital. 

“This is not fair,” Hawass says. “They are unique objects. Their home should be the Grand Museum.”

tony french/Alamy Stock Photo

The Parthenon Marbles were once painted bright colors.

The Debate Continues

Egypt has had a lot of success in getting its ancient objects returned in recent years. For example, in 2022, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City returned 16 stolen artifacts to Egypt. Many other countries are trying to get back their ancient treasures too, though there’s a heated debate about some of them (see “Finders Keepers?”).

That is true of the objects Hawass wants returned. As Scholastic News went to press, the Neues Museum hadn’t made any recent statements about the Nefertiti statue. But in the past, museum officials have argued that it was obtained fairly. They’ve also said that it’s too fragile to be transported back to Egypt. 

The British Museum has long said that it has the legal right to the Rosetta Stone too. But Hawass says it is an important part of Egyptians’ identity.

“This object, is it the history of the English? No. It is the history of Egypt,” he says.

Hawass has not directly asked the three museums to return the artifacts yet. He is waiting until he gets more support: 1 million signatures on each of his petitions. 

“I will make our voices heard everywhere until we have them back,” Hawass says.

Finders Keepers?

Guy Vanderelst/Getty Images

One of the biggest feuds over ancient treasures is about a group of sculptures known as the Parthenon Marbles. The statues once decorated the Parthenon (right) in Athens, Greece. Built nearly 2,500 years ago, the temple is one of the most famous sites from the ancient world. 

But by 1801, the temple was falling apart. A British official named Lord Elgin claimed he wanted to save the marble sculptures. Elgin had workers chisel some sculptures off the Parthenon and pick up others that had fallen to the ground. The statues later ended up in the British Museum.

For decades, Greece has argued that Elgin didn’t have permission to take the sculptures. But the British Museum says it received the Parthenon Marbles fairly—and it has refused Greece’s repeated demands to return them.

1. According to the article, why is what happened after Ludwig Borchardt saw the statue of Queen Nefertiti still being debated?

2. Based on the article, what does Zahi Hawass hope to accomplish with his online petitions?

3. What do you think Hawass means when he says that the Rosetta Stone is an important part of Egyptians’ identity?

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