“In the Light of Amarna”: half a million visitors and counting

27.06.2013
Neues Museum

The director of the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, Prof. Dr. Friederike Seyfried, today welcomed the 500,000th visitor to the collection’s current exhibition 'In the Light of Amarna - 100 Years of the Nefertiti Discovery’. Ms. Seyfried was lurking at reception in the lobby of the Neues Museum, bearing an array of gifts that included a bouquet of flowers, the exhibition catalogue, two VIP tickets for the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and a MEMO game based on Nefertiti.

The lucky visitor was Gabriele Hoffmann (39), who had travelled from Munich to Berlin to visit the museums with her son, Matteo (5). 'What a fantastic surprise!' she said, 'How lucky we are.’ Matteo was especially delighted at the surprise greeting. Prof. Seyfried handed young Matteo the children’s multimedia guide to the exhibition, which went down a treat as it turned out that Matteo - no stranger to museums - was already adroit at using multimedia guides. Thus kitted out, the director then led Ms. Hoffman and her son through the exhibition on a personal tour.

The bust of Queen Nefertiti was recovered in Tell el-Amarna on 6 December 1912. The current exhibition marking its discovery has been on show at the Neues Museum since 7 December 2012 and has been extended until 4 August 2013 due to the massive visitor demand.