Bust of Nefertiti moves to a temporary home

A 3,300-year-old bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti went on view Tuesday at a new, temporary home in Berlin as the centerpiece of a special five-month exhibition.

Nefertiti, one of Berlin’s best-known cultural treasures, was put in a padded box late Monday and driven to the Kulturforum complex from the Egyptian Museum, part of the collection’s move from former West Berlin to the capital’s historic downtown area.

“It was a 10-minute drive through snow flurries, without any hitch,” said Egyptian Museum director Dietrich Wildung.

The 19-inch high bust, with elegantly arched brows and towering dark-blue headdress, was discovered by German archeologists in 1912. It will be featured in an exhibit on art and hieroglyphs through Aug. 2.

Nefertiti and the rest of the Egyptian collection will reopen Aug. 3 at the Old Museum, part of the Museum Island complex in former East Berlin. Its planned permanent home, the New Museum, has stood in ruins since World War II and is scheduled to reopen in 2009.

Germany is in the process of restoring the island’s five neoclassical museums, which were damaged during the war and only partly restored by former communist East Germany.