Berlin  - City officials took charge of Berlin's historic Neues Museum on Thursday after more than a decade of painstaking restoration work by British architect David Chipperfield.

The renovation of the 1855 building, which was badly damaged in World War II air raids, is the latest step in a marathon project to revive the German capital's neoclassical Museum Island complex.

When it opens to the public on October 16, the Neues Museum will house Berlin's famous Egyptian collection, including the bust of Queen Nefertiti, as it did before the war.

"I reluctantly hand over the keys after 11 years of hard work, said Chipperfield, who won the 233 million euros (290 million dollars) commission to remodel the museum in 1997.

The building, which had remained derelict since the war, is the third of the five museums to have been restored to its former glory on the Museum Island, a UNESCO cultural heritage site.

The Altes Nationalgalerie was renovated in 2001 and work on the Bode Museum was completed five years later. The Pergamon Museum and the Altes Museum are due to be restored by 2026.

German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said the government had invested 1 billion euros in the Museum Island in what he called the biggest construction project in the country.

The Neues Museum was designed by Friedrich Stueler, a disciple of Prussian architect Karl-Friedrich Schinkel, to expand the adjoining Altes Museum. (dpa)