Ethiopian Integrity, and the Question of the Return of Cultural Property

The Story of Maqdala Concluded, and that of Mussolini Begun

Part II

By Dr Richard Pankhurst

Considering the story of loot taken from Ethiopia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries we saw last week that the British Expedition to Maqdala, in 1868, was accompanied by extensive looting. Emperor Yohannes IV shortly afterwards requested the return to Ethiopia of two artifacts: a manuscript of the Kebra Nagast, or "Glory of Kings" and an icon of the Kwer’ata Re‘esu, or representation of Christ with the Crown of Thorns. Now read on:

The British Government, in the aftermath of the Maqdala expedition, was anxious to remain on good terms with Emperor Yohannes, who had co-operated with Robert Napier's forces during the campaign. The Foreign Office accordingly informed the British Museum that it would be a "gracious and friendly act" to comply with the Ethiopian ruler's request.

The Museum, which possessed two copies of the Kebra Nagast, both looted from Maqdala, accordingly agreed to return what it considered the inferior copy. The return of this manuscript set an interesting precedent, for it was the only British Museum acquisition thus far ever to be returned to a Third World country.

Search for the icon was on the other hand unsuccessful. Queen Victoria accordingly wrote to Yohannes, on 14 December 1872, declaring: "Of the picture we can discover no trace whatever, and we do not think it can have been brought to England".

In the this Her Majesty, as we now know, was much mistaken. The picture had in fact been acquired, like so much else, by the indomitable Richard Holmes, who, by curious coincidence, had by this time become her Librarian at Windsor castle. He had appropriated the highly prized relic for himself.

This was not, however, publicly revealed until 1890, the year after the death of Emperor Yohannes, and no photograph of the painting appeared until 1905, when the Burlington Magazine, a journal on whose consultative committee Holmes was a member, published one, with the revealing title "Head of Christ formerly in the possession of King Theodore of Abyssinia, now in the possession of Sir Richard Holmes, KCVO."

The late Emperor's request for the return of the icon had by then conveniently been forgotten!

The question of the loot from Maqdala, however, came to the fore again a generation later, in 1924, when the then Ethiopian Regent, Ras Tafari Makonnen (later Emperor Haile Sellassie), undertook a state visit to England. On that occasion the British Government felt it desirable to honour the then Ethiopian monarch, Empress Zawditu. Since the principal British state decorations were available only for males, it was decided at the last moment, and almost as an afterthought, to present her with one of Tewodros’s two crowns, then housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

As in the case of the Kebra Nagast half a century earlier the British Government’s generosity was not unbounded. The authorities thus decided to send the Empress the silver gilt crown, and to retain the infinitely more valuable gold crown, which Holmes had acquired, and weighed about two and a half kilos.

Tewodros’s gilt crown was thus the second piece of loot from Maqdala to be returned.

The question of the loot from Maqdala came to the fore again forty years later, during Queen Elizabeth II's State Visit to Ethiopia in 1965. On the eve of her departure from the country, she presented Emperor Haile Sellassie, in Asmara, with two items which had been kept at Windsor Castle for close on a century: Tewodros' cap and imperial seal. These she returned "as a token of our gratitude and esteem".

By restoring these two further artifacts, the third and fourth objects from Maqdala to be repatriated, the principle of the piecemeal return of Ethiopian loot was thus in effect accepted.

We turn now, dear reader, to the second part of this week’s story: The Italian fascist invasion of Ethiopia, of 1935-6.

This invasion also led to further extensive looting. This was carried out in part to gratify the personal lust of the fascist leadership, in part to remove symbols of Ethiopia’s age-old independence, and in part because Mussolini, seeking to establish a new Roman Empire, sought to emulate the rulers of ancient Rome, who had brought much booty to that city.

The principal fascist leaders were all involved in looting. Pietro Badoglio, the first Italian viceroy, appropriated half the 1,700,000 Maria Theresa dollars found in the Bank of Ethiopia. This enabled him to build a villa in Rome, in which he reportedly installed 300 cases of booty flown from Ethiopia by the Italian Royal Air Force. The second viceroy, Rodolfo Graziani, likewise took back 79 cases of loot, while Attilio Teruzzi, the Minister of Italian Africa, on one visit in 1939, no less than four truck’s load.

Among articles of historical importance seized in Addis Ababa between 1936 and 1937, and taken to Italy, was a statue of the Lion of Judah, long the country's national emblem; a number of royal and ecclesiastical crowns; several paintings from the walls of the Ethiopian Parliament; the Ethiopian state archives; and one of pre-war Ethiopia’s few dozen or so aeroplanes, called after Emperor Haile Sellassie’s daughter Princess Tsehai. Other loot included a number of royal and ecclesiastical crowns, apparently taken from the important medieval monastery of Dabra Libanos, and one of the famous obelisks of Aksum, which dated back to around the early fourth century AD.

The removal of the Lion of Judah statue, and a statue of Emperor Menilek, the founder of modern Ethiopia, was ordered by Mussolini in person, immediately after the occupation of Addis Ababa in May 1936. The statue’s dismantling was, however, opposed by his viceroy, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, who argued, in a telegram later published for all to see, that it would lead to rebellion.

The Duce, however, insisted, and the statue was accordingly taken down one night in October 1936, in the presence of the fascist Ministers of the Colonies and Public Works. When in the morning the citizens of the capital learnt of the statue’s removal there were loud lamentations, and cries of "Menilek is no more. They have stolen our Menilek in the night". Carabinieri, Graziani reported, were then placed on duty to prevent any protest demonstrations. It was widely believed that the monarch’s statue had been taken to Italy, but it had in fact been only hidden away.

The Lion of Judah statue, which was

pulled down shortly afterwards, was on the other hand shipped to Rome. When it was re-erected there, in June 1938, a young Eritrean, Zerai Deress, staged a one-man demonstration of protest in full view of the Fascist police.

The transportation of the obelisk from Aksum, likewise on Mussolini's personal orders, took place in the previous year, 1937. It was likewise erected in Rome, to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the Duce’s "March" on the city, and was placed opposite the Ministry of Italian Africa building (after World War II the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO).

The removal of the monument created considerable consternation in Ethiopia. The exiled Emperor Haile Sellassie, then in Britain, referred to its removal, in an address to the World Council of Churches, as one of the eleven main "outrages" committed against his country."

Information on the Ethiopian crowns looted during the occupation is, unfortunately, still not fully documented. It is, however, known that several were seized by Graziani, who presented them to Mussolini, who placed in the Italian Colonial Museum in Rome.

A few years later when Mussolini was captured by Italian partisans, at Dongo, near the northern Italian frontier, in April 1944, three Ethiopian crowns, apparently made of gold, were found - and photographed - among the valuables with which he was attempting to escape to Switzerland.

The newly restored Ethiopian Governement meanwhile had by no means forgotten the question of the loot taken by the Fascist invaders. On 31 January 1942, i.e. less than a year after the country’s liberation, on 5 May 1941, the Emperor signed an important Agreement with the British Government. In Article 8 the latter pledged to "use their best endeavours... to secure the return of artistic works, religious property and the like removed to Italy and belonging to His Majesty the Emperor, the Ethiopian people, or local or religious bodies".

How good the British "best endeavours" were is a matter for discussion.

The question of the loot taken during the Italian fascist occupation was subsequently raised by Ethiopian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference of 1946, where the United Nations Peace Treaty with Italy was finally drafted. The Italian Government was accordingly obliged to agree, in Article 37 of the Peace Treaty, of 1947, that:

"Within eighteen months ... Italy shall restore all works of art, religious objects, archives and objects of historical value belonging to Ethiopia or its nationals and removed from Ethiopia to Italy since 3 October 1935".