Nefertiti, a queen for the XXIst century

International audienceNefertiti was made famous by her bust, discovered in 1912 in Thutmose's workshop in Amarna by the German team of Ludwig Borchardt, currently on display at the Neues Museum in Berlin . She ruled Egypt alongside her husband, the Pharaoh Akhenaton, during the 18th dynasty (1550-1292 BC): their wealthy reign was marked by the relocation of the capital in Amarna and by a religious revolution centered around the worship of the sun god Aten. Some historians think that the queen ruled briefly alone, as Neferneferuaten, when her husband died and before Tutankhamun was crowned . Nowadays, her world renown portrait is one of the most reproduced ancient Egyptian artworks: travel souvenirs, tattoos, photographs, drawings, fancy dresses... It is everywhere, and with it, the image of the queen, frozen forever and condemned to wear the same headdress again and again. Over the past ten years, Nefertiti has caught up with Cleopatra in the race for the title of supreme Queen of Egypt, despite a delay of two millennia in Western imagination