3D Scan of Nefertiti Bust is a Big Fat Hoax

[Brian_Krassenstein]

Last month a big story made the rounds about a pair of artists who surreptitiously captured a high-quality 3D scan of the bust of Nefertiti, currently on display at the Neues Museum in Berlin. According to the accompanying video the 3D scan was done using a Kinect hidden under the scarf of one of Nora Al-Badri while Jan Nikolai Nelles recorded the stunt. Sadly, what many in the 3D printing and 3D scanning community suspected from the beginning is likely true; the story is almost certainly entirely made up. 3D scanning experts and debunked the possibility that a Kinect could ever have captured such a high-quality 3D scan, especially the way it was depicted in the video. What remains now is to find out why the artists lied, and where exactly the 3D scan came from. Find out more over on 3DPrint.com: http://3dprint.com/123368/covert-scan-nefertiti-fake/

[jerry7171]

As I read someone say elsewhere, it is a shame that this Kinect was a fake and a red herring. If it had been real, the implications for small museums with little money to begin scanning their collections would have been enormous. We all know the benefits of 3D scanning fragile artifacts. Their digital surrogates could be shared with the public, studied by scholars and researchers and used as a form of preservation if the originals were lost.

It would have also brought the overall question of who owns and controls the access to otherwise public domain items into the discussion.

The Smithsonian Institution has laudably begun sharing its in-house scans of artifacts. Many other world-class museums won't, such as the Louvre or Neues Museum. The reasons seem to change with each person asked, but from personal conversations with a local provincial museum director, the probable reason boils down to these reasons in no particular order:

1. Simple control. An item might be legally in the public domain, but a museum will usually loathe to share it freely.

2. A fear of declining visitors.

3. Lost revenue.

4. In some cases, it is fear of remixing if the scans are of art items.

5. There are many museum directors who are also confused about possible copyright laws and prefer a blanket approach of declining 3D scanning to protect the museum and it's collections from any lawsuits.

As the article concluded, instead of turning the conversation into the benefits of bringing more 3D scanning to more museums and a wider sharing of the resulting scans, this event will turn into a legal quagmire and at worst give a black eye to 3D scanning and fodder for tightly controlled museums to continue denying access to their collections.

[curious aardvark]

weird thing to do. I blame social media :-)

[Mjolinor]

I think it is more a case of the owners of the original scan feeling tht it should be in the public domain.

[curious aardvark]

well that is even weirder. why get someone to pretend to have made the scan - when you could just release it or post it on thingiverse.

[Mjolinor]

I meant makers, not owners. Th owners were the museum and they wouldn't release it, under contract the people that did it couldn't release it legally either.

[All Things 3D]

Hi Brian,

It is great to be providing you a bit of material for your article instead of the other way around as is of often the case. Great write up by the way. I think I will bring this article up in our show tomorrow.

Thanks

Mike Balzer

[Geoff]

I dare say sculpted over another existing scan of her, there is many already available.

[Mjolinor]

I want to marry her, she is gorgeous.

Well she is probably a pile of worms by now I suppose (depressed, such a waste)

[curious aardvark]

you do know that's not a hat - her head was really that shape :-)

Aliens-pyramids - nuf said ;-)