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Saturday, July 5, 2008

Photo: Egypt Asks for Loans of Artifacts Held Abroad


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A visitor looks at the bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti on display at the Altes Museum in Berlin, Germany, on April 16, 2007.

The artifact recently became the center of a raging dispute between the German museum and Egypt's antiquities council when the Altes denied a loan request on the grounds that the 3,400-year-old bust is too fragile to travel.

Nefertiti's bust is now on a list of five key artifacts Egypt is officially requesting come back to the country on loan. All the requested artifacts are on a list of the five unique items the head of Egypt's antiquities council has said should be returned to their homeland permanently.

Photograph by Sean Gallup/Getty