Download scan files here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3974391

In Berlin, the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection has a high quality, full-color 3D scan of the most celebrated and recognizable portrait sculpture ever produced, the three-thousand-year-old Bust of Nefertiti. This scan is off limits to the public.

Rather, it was off-limits, until I was able to obtain it after a three-year-long freedom of information effort directed at the organization that oversees the Egyptian museum.

This story explains how I got the data: reason.com/2019/11/13/a-german-museum-tried-to-hide-this-stunning-3d-scan-of-an-iconic-egyptian-artifact-today-you-can-see-it-for-the-first-time/

You can download the museum’s 3D scan here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3974391

My complete correspondence with the museum is collected here:
Nefertiti 3D Scan FOIA Effort.PDF
(I’ll update this document with additional correspondence as it occurs.)

Please contact me for original copies of any of the documents included above, or for related images to accompany any stories.