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Scottish church gives back loot

Scottish church gives back looted carving

MUSEUMS and libraries are facing renewed calls to
return overseas artefacts after a looted sacred
carving found in an Edinburgh church was returned to Ethiopia.

The tabot, a representation of the Ark of the
Covenant, was handed over at a ceremony in Scotland yesterday 134 years after it was taken by British soldiers from a mountain fort in east Africa. The small wooden tablet, which has deep religious significance for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, was discovered last year in the cupboard of St John the Evangelist Episcopal Church on Princes Street.

An Ethiopian delegation, including diplomats and the archbishop of the diocese from which the artefact was taken, attended the ceremony.

The carving is one of a large number of objects dating from Sir Robert Napier’s 1868 campaign against King Theodore II of Abyssinia. They are known collectively as the Maqdala Treasure after the king’s mountain capital in the northwest of the country from which they were taken.

British soldiers went on the rampage on April 13,
1868, after a siege of the citadel provoked by the taking of British hostages. Fifteen elephants and 200 mules were needed to transport the spoils.

The Rev John McLuckie found the carving while
searching the cupboard for a communion set. “It was in an old brown leather box,” he said. “The tabot is a wooden tablet a few inches long with an inscription and a geometric design on it.” Each Ethiopian church has a tabot, which is consecrated instead of the building and grounds.

“I believe the Maqdala Treasure should be returned to Ethiopia,” Mr McLuckie said. “It’s part of their cultural, religious and spiritual heritage.”

The tabot was brought to St John’s shortly after 1868 by a Captain William Arbuthnot. He had bought it in an auction conducted by Lord Napier and delivered it to his local church with a brass display stand.

Mr McLuckie said that it is not clear if the tabot was ever shown at the church. The decision to return it was taken by a church committee of priests and congregation.

Other items of the Maqdala Treasure are to be found in the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the British Library and the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.

The Ethiopian Embassy urged all individuals and
institutions in this country and abroad to return
Maqdala artefacts. A Scottish woman had returned a Maqdala manuscript, inspired by the church’s example, the embassy said. “It was an individual gesture that we really appreciate.”

The British Museum has eight tabots. A museum
spokesman said that they were unable to hand items back and that the case was no different from the Elgin Marbles. “They are part of the collection. Just because another institution sets a precedent, doesn’t change our position.”

Christopher Spring, the British Museum’s curator
responsible for Northeast, East and Southern African Collections, said that although the museum has made their tabots available to researchers, they have not been hotographed. “I’m not sure they have ever been exhibited,” he said.

The Victoria & Albert has a solid gold crown and a chalice from the Maqdala Treasure in its collection, although they are owned by the Treasury.

The Treasury said: “By statute, the V&A is prevented from selling items in their collection, so these could not be sold or handed back.”

The Royal Collection, which runs the Windsor library, said: “We’ve never had a formal request for the manuscripts. Although we’re not governed under the same rules as national collections, we have the same view that the collections are kept intact.”

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