[2] The Egyptologist Bernard Von Bothmer of the Brooklyn Museum was the first expert to attempt to identify the piece and published his findings in an exhibition catalogue from 1960.

"[3] With no other previous scholarly literature available on the sculpture at the time, Von Bothmer concluded that: "If the date suggested (about 240-200 BC) is correct, we may have in this queen either Berenice II or Arsinoe III.

"[3] Robert S. Bianchi, also of the Brooklyn Museum, suggested the bust was either of a Queen or Goddess because "the appearance of the uraeus on the hair band is an attribute common to both.

The small-sized nature demonstrates the statue would have been seen on a daily basis for the late Ptolemaic Egyptians; it would have been displayed at a level where the public could easily identify it as Cleopatra VII.

[13] Another Parian-marble Roman bust of Cleopatra exists in the Capitoline Museums of Rome, but it features her wearing an Egyptian-style vulture headdress instead of a diadem.