The Egyptian government wants to borrow Nefertiti for three months so it can be displayed at the opening of the $550 million Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza pyramids.

In April, German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann said there were "serious conservational and restorative concerns" about transporting the bust of Nefertiti. He stressed that his country's procurement of the work was lawful and said Egypt had no grounds to demand its return.

That position hasn't changed after months of lobbying by the Egyptians. "It's up to the owner of a work of art to decide whether it is fit to travel or not," says Mechtild Kronenberg, director of the German Museums Association.

Hawass, who has recovered about 4,000 artefacts from countries including Spain, France and Mexico since 2002, is also asking the British Museum to lend the Rosetta Stone to Egypt...

The British Museum's Board of Trustees is reviewing the request, says spokeswoman Hannah Boulton.

Egypt asked to borrow the works as part of a project to fill 19 new museums, of which the Grand Egyptian Museum will be the largest. The museum is under construction and is scheduled to open in 2012.

The country may need that long to bring Nefertiti and the Rosetta Stone back to Cairo, even temporarily...

Queen Nefertiti Boils Cairo Blood as Germans Reject Bust Loan, Abeer Allam, Bloomberg, UK, September 11, 2007.