Original subtitles

(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.