<Berlínské Nové muzeum se znovu otvírá> translates to <The Berlin New Museum reopens>

Berlin - The Berlin New Museum, home to a renowned ancient Egyptian collection and the world-famous bust of Queen Nefertiti, will open to the public for the first time since World War II this weekend. After 70 years, all five institutions on Museum Island, which was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1999, will be accessible to art-loving visitors at once.
    The head of the state cultural foundation Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Hermann Parzinger, stated at today’s press conference that the reopening of the museum marks the beginning of a new era for Museum Island, which Germans consider their national cultural monument. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will also attend the ceremonial reopening on Friday.
    The New Museum encompasses the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection as well as the Museum of Prehistory and Early History. The most famous exhibit of the Egyptian collection is the legendary statue of Queen Nefertiti, wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten.
    The bust, created in the workshop of sculptor Thutmose around 1340 BC, has returned to the museum for the first time since the war, where it was first presented to the public in 1924. After the war, during which it was stored in salt mines in Kaiseroda in central Germany, it became part of the collections of West Berlin.
    Recently, voices have arisen from Egypt claiming that Germany acquired the bust unlawfully. The head of the Egyptian antiquities organization, Zahi Hawass, stated in today’s edition of the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel that a commission has been created in Egypt to gather the relevant documents and clarify “what exactly happened (in 1913) during the division of the finds.”
    The work was discovered in December 1912 by a German archaeological team led by Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt at the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Akhetaten. Along with other artifacts, it then became the property of Berlin philanthropist James Simon, who financed the excavations. He donated the bust to the Berlin Egyptian Museum in 1920.
    In total, however, the New Museum exhibits around 9,000 artifacts, of which over 2,500 are from the Egyptian collection. The oldest object is a 700,000-year-old hand axe, while the youngest is a piece of barbed wire from the Berlin Wall.
    Visitors can admire jewelry craftsmanship, sculptures of people and animals, richly decorated sarcophagi, agricultural tools, or everyday items not only from ancient Egyptians but also from numerous ancient tribes of Africa, Europe, and South America in the well-lit rooms.
    The neoclassical museum building, constructed according to the plans of architect Friedrich August Stüler between 1843 and 1855, suffered severe damage during WWII bombing. Subsequently, Museum Island was located in the eastern part of divided Berlin, and the New Museum remained closed for decades and continued to deteriorate.
    Since 2003, the building has been extensively renovated according to designs by British architect David Chipperfield, who incorporated some modern elements into the structure while leaving many areas of masonry with visible war damage preserved in situ. The museum's reconstruction cost 212 million euros (approximately 5.5 billion crowns) of federal money.
    Museum Island in Berlin also includes the Pergamon Museum, Old Museum, Bode Museum, and Old National Gallery. The Old Museum and Bode Museum have been renovated in recent years, while the Pergamon Museum is currently surrounded by scaffolding.