Maqdala treasures

Maqdala shield to be repatriated to Ethiopia

Withdrawn from auction in February, the shield will make a stop at the Toledo Museum of Art before going on public display at the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa

Auctioneer withdraws looted shield from sale after restitution request from Ethiopian government

Ethiopian Heritage Authority asked to contact vendor to request restitution of battle trophy taken following British expeditionary force's punitive siege of Maqdala in 1868

Investigation by Portuguese newspaper reveals grappling between politicians and museums over future of Kwer’ata Re’esu

Disagreement centred over whether the painting, looted in 1868 and later sold to a private collector in Portugal, should be bought by the government and returned to Ethopia

Unravelling the Kwer’ata Re’esu mystery: experts say the painter could be Iberian, Flemish—or German

The painting had been looted at the battle of Maqdala in 1868, but is now in the possession of a Portuguese collector

Sacred Ethiopian tablet looted by the British at the battle of Maqdala 155 years ago is returned in London church service

Restitution of tabot, which was bought by an art scholar for this purpose, puts spotlight on the British Museum to return 11 in its possession

Exclusive: first colour photographs shed fresh light on Ethiopia's most treasured icon and its looting by an agent of the British Museum

An Art Newspaper investigation uncovers new details on the infamous seizure in 1868 by Richard Holmes of a 500-year-old painting of Christ, the Kwer’ata Re’esu, which never reached the London institution

King Charles III faces pressure to return sacred tabot—which symbolically represents the Ark of the Covenant—to Ethiopia

Westminster Abbey, which is directly under the monarch’s jurisdiction, currently refuses to return the holy tablet

Maqdala treasures looted by British troops returned to Ethiopia in 'largest single restitution'

At the ceremony in London, the Ethiopian ambassador renewed calls for museums to return Maqdala objects

Looted Maqdala objects—pulled from rural English auction at the last minute—will be returned to Ethiopia

Busby auction house confirms it has "negotiated a settlement" after Ethiopian officials requested the return of items stolen by British troops in a brutal 1868 battle

British Museum must recognise its own powers in matters of restitution

Case of Ethiopian tabots shows that trustees' hands are not tied when it comes to the disposal of certain items from the collection

London museum returns emperor's hair—taken by a British officer as a war trophy—to Ethiopia

The two locks will be buried at the monastery where emperor Tewodros' body was interred

Ethiopia claims Ten Commandments tablet hidden in Westminster Abbey

Sacred object taken by British troops in the 19th century is concealed inside an altar

Looted artarchive

From the archive (1998): How The Art Newspaper tracked down Ethiopia’s greatest icon after its looting by a British agent in 1868

The Kwer'ata Re'esu was kept in a bank vault in Portugal, where our correspondent examined it and took colour photographs in 1998

Looted artarchive

From the archive (1993): Where is the looted Kwer'ata Re'esu, the most revered icon of the Ethiopian empire?

As a touring exhibition, African Zion—The Sacred Art Of Ethiopia, opened in the United States in 1993, a scholar of Ethiopian history asked what had become of the country's most important painting of all