“Very Difficult Precedent” Later that same day, 11 July, one of the Foreign Office officials, Mr. J. Murray, duly reported on the visit to Sir Amherst Selby Bigge, of the Board of Education, and what he had learnt from him. He noted: “It appears that there are two crowns, the first a highly ornate …
During the Italian fascist occupation of Ethiopia, 1936-1941, the invaders looted not only the Aksum obelisk (which should have been returned in 1947-8, in accordance with the United Nations-Italian Peace, and in 1997, in accordance with the more recent Italian agreement with the present Ethiopian Government). The Italians also carried off an indeterminate quantity of …
The dispute, in the 1860’s between Emperor Tewodros II and the British Government, led to the extensive looting of the Ethiopian ruler’s mountain fortress of Maqdala, by British troops. The loot from Maqdala, which included several hundred valuable Ethiopian manuscripts and many other Ethiopian artifacts, both religious and secular, was taken on 15 elephants and …