All language subtitles for Secrets Unlocked Series 1 Part 14 Nefertiti 1080p

(dramatic music)

Mastrelli: This face turned an
all but forgotten woman

Into a global icon.

She is nefertiti,
revolutionary, queen of egypt.

But what if her modern
reputation is built on a lie?

Could the nefertiti bust be
a stunning, sensational fake?

For centuries the
mysteries of the past

Have kept their secrets,

But there are clues cast
in gold, etched in stone,

Written in blood.
(yelling)

We can unlock them.

Along with the pyramids,
the face of tutankhamen,

And the sphinx, the
head of nefertiti,

Resplendent in its blue crown,

Is one of egypt's
defining symbols.

This is the hope diamond.

At 45.52 carats, it's
some serious bling.

Except it's not, it's a fake.

The real one is in
the smithsonian.

These white gloves make it
seem pretty authentic though.

And if you were tricked,

It certainly wouldn't be the
first time someone misjudged

A seemingly priceless artifact.

Back in the 20th century,

The appetite for exotic
antiques enabled a market

Where even the smartest experts

And finest museums weren't
immune to being duped.

Is that what happened
when curators,

Hungry for new discoveries,

Came face to face with a
forgotten egyptian queen?

Berlin, germany,
the neues museum,

Where a single
object stands alone.

It is the blue crowned
bust of an egyptian queen.

Carved from a
block of limestone,

Smoothed with plaster,
richly painted,

Its image has become one of
the most recognizable on earth,

Reproduced countless times.

Wherever it's displayed
it's big box office.

Seyfried: We have between

800,000 and one million
visitors a year,

Looking at the famous bust.

The painted bust of
nefertiti is really

A masterpiece of egyptian art.

Mastrelli: But
it's more than that.

Without this bust,
the name nefertiti

Would be known only to scholars.

While tutankhamen is famous

Because his tomb
was found intact,

With nefertiti there is no
tomb, no gold, no rich burial.

The fact this
sculpture has survived

Is in and of itself a miracle.

So who was the real
-life nefertiti?

Nefertiti was the
great royal wife

Of controversial
pharaoh akhenaten

Who shook up egypt in
the 14th century bce.

For 17 years, he upended
egyptian religious beliefs,

Abandoning the tradition
of multiple gods

To worship just one,
the sun, or aten.

To mark this break
with the past,

He uprooted the royal
centers of power

In memphis and thebes,

Moving to a new capital
in the desert, amarna.

After 17 years on the
throne, akhenaten died.

There was nobody to
uphold his revolution.

The people of egypt
abandoned his religion

And his capital
city in the desert,

And akhenaten and nefertiti
were branded as heretics.

Gangs were commissioned
by the new royal court

To seek out images of
akhenaten and nefertiti

And then destroy them, to
erase them from history.

But on December 12th,
1912, while excavating

In an area of ancient amarna,

German archeologist
ludwig borchardt

Made a stunning discovery.

When the find was
announced to the world,

It revived the
memory of a queen,

All but forgotten
for 3000 years.

This moment would define

How both borchardt and
nefertiti are remembered.

(intriguing music)

And this is where the modern
story of nefertiti begins.

There are many
unanswered questions

Since the discovery
of the bust in 1912.

Is this really what
she looked like?

How could the bust have
survived, almost pristine,

For more than 3000 years?

The paints are all made
from materials commonly

Found in the desert landscape.

It's the fact they've endured
that makes them so remarkable.

Simon: There is no real
parallel comparative object

In that state of
preservation, she's so unique.

Mastrelli: So what can
modern science tell us

About this sculpture?

A ct scan reveals a solid rock
core, made from limestone,

That is wrapped in layers
of plaster material,

Known as stucco, and it's
the stucco that forms

The more intricate
features, like the ears.

This layering is very
rare in egyptian art.

In her lifetime, nefertiti
became the embodiment

Of beauty and 3000 years later,

Thanks to the bust, the
same thing happened again.

But did the sculptor really
carve a realistic portrait?

Laboury: She's
absolutely perfect,

She's absolutely
symmetrical,

With not a single
default, she's flawless.

Mastrelli: Egyptologist
dimitri laboury

Believes he's pieced together
the method the sculptor used.

It's a process that's part
science as well as art.

We know from traces on other
ancient egyptian artworks

That sculptors used a grid
system to rough out their ideas,

A simple but ingenious method

For turning a flat
image into a 3d object.

Every sculpture started with
horizontal and vertical lines,

Drawn onto the front and
side of a stone block.

Laboury: And to produce
that kind of grid,

They had rulers with
measurement units

And equal distance
between each line.

This is the technique
that they were using

From the very beginning of
ancient egyptian sculpture.

Mastrelli: This way, when he
came to draw a guide outline

Onto the block, a sculptor
could preserve perfect symmetry,

He wouldn't have
to judge it by eye.

But when a scholar named rolf
krauss worked out the grid

And the outline which
produced the nefertiti bust,

He made a startling discovery.

Laboury: He reproduced a grid
on each side of the block

To recreate the
design of this bust.

Mastrelli: The relationship
between the grid and the face

Suggests that there's some
sort of formula at work.

Laboury: All the features of
the face of nefertiti

Just fit on a line or at
the crossroad of two lines.

Every feature fits on a
line like the bottom line

That defines the
positioning of the eyes,

The base of the nose, the
junction between the two lips.

Mastrelli: In statistical
terms, it's virtually impossible

That any real face would fit
so perfectly into this grid.

If this image bears
any resemblance at all

To the real nefertiti,
it's heavily stylized,

The ancient egyptian equivalent
of a retouched photo.

Laboury: She's
absolutely too perfect

To be a rendering of the
actual face of nefertiti.

Mastrelli: Nefertiti may not
have been as perfect

In real life as her iconic bust,

And unfortunately a closer
look at its discovery

May also prove a little
too good to be true.

The nefertiti bust has
long puzzled experts

And some have even
questioned its authenticity.

The main reason, its
miraculously pristine condition.

It certainly doesn't
look 3000 years old.

While it was definitely
discovered in amarna,

The circumstances surrounding
that day seem a little fishy.

There are photographs taken
on December 6th, 1912,

The day the bust was found

By german archeologist
ludwig borchardt.

At first glance
they appear simply

To document borchardt's
incredible find.

But after examining
them more closely,

Egyptologist christian loeben
reads them differently.

The photographs were taken
by a visiting dignitary,

Prince johann george of saxony.

The single day that
he spent at amarna

Just happened to be the day
when the bust was discovered.

Loeben: I think the bust has
been found somewhere else

And for the occasion
brought to the find spot

Where it was
discovered by borchardt

And in the presence
of these royal people.

Mastrelli: Loeben
has uncovered a letter

That borchardt
wrote to his wife,

And it appears to
support his suspicions.

Loeben: He writes a little poem
which goes as follows.

(speaking in foreign language)

Which is in english
something like,

If you find something, take
it into the house immediately

Where it's safe and secure.

However, when a
prince is approaching,

Make sure you only
find it tomorrow.

Mastrelli: At
berlin's neues museum,

Where the bust is
the star attraction,

Any suggestion that borchardt
was less than honest

Or that he stage-managed
the discovery is unpopular.

Seyfried: Of course it is
really sensational

That you have royal
visitors and then the day

When you find the
most important,

Maybe the most important
things of the whole campaign,

But that's, yeah, fortune,
that's, yeah, fate.

(shutter clicks)

It was not arranged, no never.

Mastrelli: But the
debate doesn't end there.

There are those who would go
even further in questioning,

Not only the manner
of the discovery,

But also whether it is
in fact ancient at all.

One man believes that
the nefertiti bust

Is a 20th century fake.

Greenhalgh: It's supposed to be
the work of a master sculptor,

But the technique
says otherwise.

Mastrelli: Shaun
greenhalgh knows fakery.

In 2007 he sold
this amarna statue

To a uk museum for
a six figure sum.

What he didn't reveal was
that he'd made it himself.

Greenhalgh is a
convicted forger,

His work has fooled
experts around the world.

For greenhalgh, what
gives the game away

Is the layer of stucco plaster

That covers the limestone core

And forms the bust's
most intricate features.

Greenhalgh: That's the work of,
if not an amateur,

Then a second or
third-rate sculptor

And none of those would
work for the pharaoh,

He'd only have the best.

That'd be like finding
a michelangelo sculpture

In marble and then you find
out that the ears, the eyes,

All the hands, the
difficult parts,

Are all made in
stucco and added on,

It just wouldn't be done.

The damage on it
is the major point

Of it being a later copy.

It's something I've done myself,
I've seen on other fakes.

It's quite obvious if you
look at where it's damaged.

The ears are damaged,

So obviously its been
dropped left and right sides.

The back of the head has been
damaged, and most telling,

The cobra on the conical
cap is almost obliterated.

To remove it, it would
have taken off the nose,

The brow ridges and the chin,

There's absolutely no
damage to the face.

The damage is selective and
that's a dead ringer for a fake.

Mastrelli: Another
indication this could be a fake

Is nefertiti's missing eye.

The left socket is empty
while the right eye is made

From an inlay of black
wax and rock crystal.

Greenhalgh believes that the
right eye is genuinely ancient,

Sourced to make
the bust look real.

Greenhalgh: It's a major
pointer to its fakery

Because it's the kind of
thing I've done myself,

Sourcing beads or pearls
or whatever for in a piece.

Mastrelli: Borchardt
searched the area

Where the bust was discovered,

Offering a cash reward to anyone

Who could find the missing eye.

It was never found

And greenhalgh believes
it never existed.

Greenhalgh: It would be possible
to source a quartzite eye,

But to find a pair, well
that be would very long odds.

Mastrelli: Greenhalgh
argues this is the only way

To explain the empty socket.

To ancient egyptians, the eyes
were a window to the soul.

So representing the queen
with one eye missing

Would be a shocking
sign of disrespect.

Finally, greenhalgh
thinks he knows

Why the forger picked nefertiti
and the amarna period.

Greenhalgh: If you're
gonna pick a period

Of egyptian art to fake,

The amarna period
is really the best

Because the sculpture
wasn't any more difficult

Than any other period,

But it is the most valuable
today to collectors.

Mastrelli: Even
though the discovery

Of nefertiti's bust seems
strangely fortuitous,

Could this iconic
sculpture really be a fake?

If so, this actually
wouldn't be the only time

Borchardt had been
connected with a forgery.

Experts are expressing
concerns over the discovery

And authenticity of the
iconic bust of nefertiti.

Could it be that
ludwig borchardt,

Germany's most
celebrated archeologist,

Was duped by, or worse
still, took part in,

The greatest art
fraud of all time?

At the August kesner museum
in hanover, christian loeben

Is uncovering further reason
to mistrust borchardt.

In a storeroom, he's looking

For an ancient
egyptian sculpture

That is no longer on display.

It was bought by
the museum in 1926.

Loeben: It represents a young
man with a happy vague,

Really nice piece
of the 12th dynasty,

Which is approximately 2000 bc.

Mastrelli: The documentation
that comes with it

Clearly identifies the seller

As none other than
ludwig borchardt.

Loeben: It says,
borchardt, cairo

In 1926, for 2,550 piasters.

To sell things onto museums
was certainly something

Which not every archeologist
would have done.

Mastrelli: But borchardt's
prominent reputation

As an archeologist meant
there was no reason

To doubt the authenticity
of his goods.

Loeben: A lot of people were
relying on borchardt

To get beautiful objects for
them on the cairo market.

Mastrelli: But just
four years later,

Borchardt made an
incredible admission.

Loeben: Borchardt himself
published an article

Including this object, in which
he states that it is a fake.

The museum was not very happy

To learn that it
had bought a fake.

Mastrelli: Either
borchardt had been complicit

In the sale of a forged object,

Or he himself had been fooled.

Loeben: It's quite a good fake,

Only for knowledgeable
egyptologists

Who have really looked
at a lot of egyptian art

And also at forgeries would
really say that it is a fake.

Mastrelli: A history
of selling fakes

Should bring borchardt's
credibility into question,

But does it mean that we
need to think differently

About the nefertiti bust?

Professor stefan simon is a
leading conservation scientist

And the director of the
rathgen research lab in berlin.

He preserves
historical artifacts,

But also knows how
to spot a forgery.

Simon: As a conservation
scientist, I see chemical faces,

I look at the process of
how an object was made.

What was the first, the
second, the third layer?

It's important to
take a close look.

Mastrelli: For a long time,

Simon's investigations
were restricted

By the fact that the bust is
so fragile and so valuable.

The destructive
testing normally used

To establish the age of an
artifact was not an option.

But when a tiny fragment
of paint was dislodged

While the bust was in transit,

Simon seized the opportunity
to examine its chemical makeup.

Simon: Today we're taking a look
at a tiny flake of paint

Off decorated surface
which fell off the bust.

We were looking at its
chemical composition,

At the ground layer, how it
was prepared before painting,

Also at the texture, what is
the grain size distribution.

Mastrelli: Under
the microscope,

The paint sample is
magnified 800 times,

Giving stefan simon
a unique insight

Into its chemical structure.

Simon: We are searching for
hints and indications

Which are contradicting
authenticity.

We're looking for materials
which were not used

At the time they were
supposed to be used.

Mastrelli: The analysis
reveals why the colors

Have not dulled
after so many years.

Simon: Most of the colors
are very, very strong

And stable inorganic pigments.

Mastrelli: The chemical
composition of these pigments

Means that no matter
how long they were left,

The colors would remain vivid.

Simon: All these paints are
part of the palette

Of the egyptian
artists 3000 years ago.

They are to be
expected to be there

And they are quite stable,
and that's probably the reason

Why they are still in
such a pristine condition

After so many years.

Mastrelli: Simon believes
that the patterns he sees

On the bust were
most likely formed

Over a period of centuries.

Simon: Most important
finding was the aging

Over long periods of time,

Changing partly the
chemical composition

In processes which are
really slow processes,

Which take a long time.

Mastrelli: But is this enough
to conclude, with certainty,

That this is an
original ancient work?

Simon: You cannot prove
that it's an original,

You can prove that's a fake
if you find the evidence.

If you find materials
which are not consistent

With the time, yeah,

Then you can say well
there's a problem,

But if you don't find,
you cannot prove.

Mastrelli: The paint on the
bust appears to be old enough.

Professor simon is
able to rule out

The presence of modern pigments,

But that alone is insufficient

To confirm the overall
authenticity of the sculpture.

Simon: Unfortunately,
we are not able

To say yes, for 100%, here
we have an authentic object.

Mastrelli: The nefertiti
bust continues to attract

Up to a million visitors a year,

Despite lingering concerns
about its provenance.

Greenhalgh: I don't believe
that it's genuine,

It just looks modern.

Loeben: I am 100% sure it's an

Original ancient
egyptian object,

But it has not been discovered

Where borchardt says
he discovered it.

Seyfried: It is quite
sure that she is

A key piece of
ancient egyptian art.

Mastrelli: As the debate over
the bust of nefertiti grinds on,

Forgeries continue to
inundate the art world.

Today european police estimate

That as much as half of
the art in circulation

On the international
market is fake,

And even renowned fakes have
become so prized that they too

Have been purchased for
incredible sums of money.

As is the case with this
iconic egyptian queen,

It seems the provenance
of a work of art

Sometimes matters less than how
it captures our imagination.

Kind of like that phrase,

I don't know much about
art, but I know what I like.