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| National Gallery of Victoria |
Chapter
5
Neues
Museum, Museum Island, Berlin
“WHAT THE GERMAN people have, they keep,”
Adolf Hitler famously responded when Egyptian authorities suggested that the
famous bust of Queen Nefertiti in Berlin ought to be returned to Cairo.
Anson was standing among other admiring
visitors in front of the bust of the iconic queen in a long gallery at the north
cupola of the Neues Museum, when he recalled the Fuehrer’s response. The
suggestions from the Egyptian authorities had risen to the level of rancorous
clamour in recent years, yet there were still no signs that Nefertiti was going
back to Egypt anytime soon. The queen’s image was everywhere, on postcards, in
books and on publicity posters. Nefertiti had the pulling power of a superstar.
Was it James Bond’s creator Ian Fleming
who’d remarked that the ancient queen of Egypt could make an entrance today in
a designer gown and give the beautiful people a run for their money?
I never thought I’d agree with Hitler on
any subject, Anson reflected, shaking his head in wonder at her beauty. The
timeless elegance, lovely neck and airborne eyebrows produced a powerful effect
on the beholder. If I had Nefertiti I wouldn’t part with her either.
Yet it was not always true that ‘what the
German people have, they keep’ when it came to Egypt’s treasures, Anson
thought, if there was any truth in the German informant's story about his
grandfather’s returning of the Stela texts to Egypt.
A museum visitor moved in and stood beside
Anson at the glass case, directing a jaded stare at Queen Nefertiti.
“Personally, I think she’s overrated,” the
man said. He had a tired face and spoke with a lazy drawl. American.
“Stars never quite look the same off
camera,” Anson consoled him.
He saw a movement reflected in the glass surface and
looked around. A glimpse of a blurred head vanished behind an entrance way.
Was this his anxious
and mysterious informant?(excerpt. The Ibis Apocalypse)
