An Ethiopian shield, looted at the battle of Maqdala in 1868, has been withdrawn from sale at auction due to take place in Newcastle upon Tyne today. The government of Ethiopia had formally asked for the sale to be cancelled and for the battle trophy to be restituted from the UK. The Ethiopian Heritage Authority “welcomes” this decision. It also plans to start a dialogue aimed at “securing an outcome that will see this treasured item return to its homeland and its legitimate owners, the people and government of Ethiopia”.
The shield had been included by Anderson & Garland in their eclectic sale billed as “The Collectors' Auction”. Dating from the 19th century, the domed shield is decorated with metal strapwork and floral motifs. The central boss has been inscribed "Magdala 13th April 1868”, the date of battle (now known as Maqdala) at which British forces defeated the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros II. The shield's lot number is now marked as "withdrawn" on the Anderson & Garland website.
The estimate for the shield had been £800-£1,200, a relatively modest sum, perhaps in part reflecting its contested status as colonial loot. The auction was noted by Andrew Heavens, author of The Prince and the Plunder (2023).
The auctioneers were quite open about events surrounding the acquisition of the shield. The catalogue entry records that General Robert Napier (later Lord Napier of Magdala), the commander of the British forces, ordered the burning of Maqdala, with troops “looting many local artefacts which they took back to Britain”.
However, no details are provided on the post-1868 provenance of the shield. It was presumably acquired by a British soldier and may well have passed down in their family. No seller is named by the auctioneers.
On 23 February the director general of the Ethiopian Heritage Authority, Abebaw Ayalew, wrote to Anderson & Garland, saying that the shield had been “wrongfully acquired in a context of a punitive expedition to Ethiopia”.
Ayalew added: “As the legally mandated authority concerned with Ethiopian heritage… we would therefore strongly urge you to cancel the auction, and request that you contact the sellers to arrange for the restitution of this looted item and repatriation to its country of origin and its legally rightful owners, the Ethiopian government represented by the Heritage Authority under the Ministry of Tourism.” This letter was copied to the Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its embassy in London.
Alula Pankhurst, a British scholar who has lived for many years in Ethiopia (and is a great grandson of the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst), is also calling for the restitution of the shield. He points out that in 2021 a Busby auction in Bridport of looted horn cups seized at Maqdala was cancelled after the Ethiopian authorities intervened.