Friedrich August Stüler, a student of Schinkel, designed the Neues Museum for King Frederick William IV. Construction began on June 19, 1841, and the museum opened in 1855. The style is Neoclassical and Renaissance Revival. Weak ground required 2,344 wooden piles, 23 to 60 feet (6.9 to 18.2 m) long, and the ironwork was the first monumental Prussian use of industrial techniques.
The museum closed in 1939. Bombing on November 23, 1943, burned the central stairway and its frescoes, and Allied bombs in February 1945 destroyed the northwest wing. The ruin then decayed for decades.
David Chipperfield, appointed in 1997, rebuilt it with Julian Harrap from 1999 to 2009, restoring the northwest wing and southeast facade close to their original layout. It reopened on October 16, 2009, and won the 2011 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture. It holds the Egyptian Museum, with the Nefertiti bust, on UNESCO's Museum Island.
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