Like separated parents locked in a dispute over visiting rights to a child, Cairo is seething over Berlin's refusal to allow it's 3400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti to visit home for a three-month sojourn.
Berlin says the bust is too fragile to make the journey. Egypt isn't buying that and is quick to remind Berlin that the bust was apparently sturdy enough to allow artists in 2003 temporarily attach it to a bronze statue of a naked woman.
Now Zahi Hawass has threatened to "never again" organize an exhibition of Egyptian antiquities in Germany should the bust not be lent for a temporary exhibition. Germany, of course, has been an important archaeological force in Egypt over the past century. Like squabbling parents, the simmering feud has the potential to further fray relations.
At the heart of the matter is not simply the concept of a temporary loan of the world-renowned Nefertiti bust. Rather Hawass has been extremely vocal in his public calls for the return of Egyptian antiquities -- even some that have been out of the country for decades -- to be returned to Egypt.
No doubt Berlin is well acquainted with the American phrase that "possession is nine-tenths of the law." Hawass would love to see the bust permanently in Egypt. In the current climate of aggressive and sometimes outrageous claims by Hawass for permanent repatriation of antiquities, it is very likely that it will be quite a few more years before Nefertiti sees Egypt again -- even for a short visit.
