Culture
Ethiopia’s Looted Manuscripts Face Unfinished Journey Home
The Reporter · yesterday · Read the Full Story on The Reporter
AI SUMMARY
While recent returns of historical manuscripts offer hope, many looted Ethiopian artifacts, including the disputed Gondarine Gospel, remain abroad amid complex restitution challenges.
- Seventeen ancient parchment manuscripts dating from the 17th to 19th centuries returned to Ethiopia from the United States in September.
- The returned manuscripts include the Ta’amra Maryam, the Four Gospels, the Synaxarium, and the Psalms of David, and were distributed among seven Ethiopian institutions.
- The Gondarine Gospel, an illuminated Ge’ez manuscript believed to have belonged to Emperor Tewodros II, was listed for sale by a Vienna-based bookseller for about 250,000 euros.
- Ethiopian authorities and heritage campaigners, including Alula Pankhurst, successfully urged that the Gondarine Gospel be withdrawn from the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair sale.
- Inlibris argued it acquired the Gospel through legitimate previous transactions and described the return campaign as a smear campaign.
- Alula Pankhurst advocates for negotiated purchase of the Gondarine Gospel, noting that Ethiopia has a legal and moral claim but faces financial and ownership hurdles.
- The Victoria and Albert Museum holds around 90 Ethiopian objects, including manuscripts, a gold crown, and a gold chalice associated with the 1868 Maqdala expedition.
- V&A researchers identified a previously catalogued service book as a Ge’ez Psalter written by Aleka Zeneb, a secretary and chronicler of Tewodros.
- The Ethiopian Heritage Authority reports that more than 67 cultural objects were recovered over the seven years preceding the latest return.
- The 1970 UNESCO Convention against illicit trafficking of cultural property is generally not retroactive, making historical restitution cases reliant on negotiation.
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