- Title: Plunder
- Date: 21st May 1995
- Summary: NEFERTITI: NW-J TRAVELS TO THE BANKS OF THE NILE TO DESCRIBE THE PLUNDER OF ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WORKS OF EGYPTIAN ART - THE BUST OF QUEEN NEFERTITI. AROUND 1370 BC NEFERTITI AND HER HUSBAND, THE PHARAOH AKHENATEN, DRAMATICALLY ABANDONED THE TRADITIONAL CAPITAL OF THEBES (LUXOR), REBELLING AGAINST THE POWER OF THE PRIESTHOOD, AND FOUNDED A NEW CITY - AMARNA - AND A NEW RELIGION: THE FIRST TO BE BASED ON THE WORSHIP OF ONLY ONE GOD. AFTER THEIR DEATHS, THE CITY WAS RAZED, AND FOR 3000 YEARS ALMOST NOTHING WAS HEARD OF THE AMARNA EXPERIMENT AND ITS MYSTERIOUS LEADERS. TODAY, IN THE SAND BLOWN WASTES OF AMARNA, NW-J DISCOVERS THE SPOT WHERE, IN 1912, THE GERMAN EGYPTOLOGIST LUDWIG BORCHARDT FOUND THE BUST OF NEFERTITI. IT HAS MESMERISED ADMIRERS EVER SINCE. NW-J INVESTIGATES HOW BORCHARDT HOODWINKED THE AUTHORITIES INTO LETTING HIM TAKE THE BUST OUT OF EGYPT. HE TRIED TO KEEP IT HIDDEN FOR 10 YEARS. WHEN IT WAS FINALLY PUT ON DISPLAY IN BERLIN IN 1924, THE EGYPTIANS WERE FURIOUS. THEY SUGGESTED A SWAP TO GET IT BACK. LATER, HITLER IS SAID TO HAVE INTERVENED TO PREVENT ANOTHER ATEMPT TO RETURN THE BUST. IRONICALLY, THE NEFERTITI HAS PROBABLY BECOME MORE FAMOUS IN THE BERLIN EGYPTIAN MUSEUM THAN IT WOULD HAVE BEEN HAD IT REMAINED IN EGYPT. THE EGYPTIANS SELL SO MANY COPIES OF HER THAT VISITORS TO CAIRO COULD BE FORGIVEN FOR THINKING SHE IS STILL THERE.
- Description:WE GO ON THE TRAIL OF THREE CELEBRATED MUSEUM MASTERPIECES TO FIND OUT HOW THEY ENTERED THEIR RESPECTIVE COLLECTIONS AND WHICH LAWS WERE BROKEN TO DO SO.
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:BRIAN LAPPING ASSOCIATES LTD
- Programme Episode:Episode 1
- Transmission Date:21/05/1995
- Rights:On Request
- Decade: 1990s