Wanted: A Stolen Queen

For 3,000 years one of the loveliest flowers of ancient Egyptian art bloomed unseen in the gloom of a Tell el-Amarna tomb. There, in 1912, German Archeologist Ludwig Borchardt unearthed the gracile head of Queen Nefertete ("The Beautiful One Has Come"), and quietly shipped it to Germany. In vain the Egyptian Government demanded its return. Nefertete stayed in the Berlin Neues Museum, and her swanlike beauty (in cheap reproductions) became world renowned.

Last week, in the bowels of a German salt mine at Merkers, U.S. soldiers came upon the comely queen. The painted limestone head was buried in a debris of art objects and gold bars cached in the mine by nervous Nazis. Waiting only long enough to confirm the news, the newly belligerent Egyptian Government filed its first war claim: hand over Nefertete.

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