The Times 1 October, 2004 Campaigns by Greece, Nigeria and Egypt to retrieve treasures from the British Museum were encouraged after it emerged that talks were under way that may result in the Ethiopian church keeping objects on long-term loan.
The museum has repeatedly rejected calls for anything in its collection to be returned, but it is making an exception for sacred tablets plundered by British troops in the 19th century.
The tablets, or tabots as they are known, are small blocks in wood and stone with geometric decorations or inscriptions in Ethiopic. They are the most important artefacts from any Ethiopian Orthodox church and are regarded by Ethiopian Christians as so sacred that the 11 examples in the British Museum can never be displayed, let alone touched by curators .Only senior Ethiopian clergy have access to them.
They were among hundreds of objects, including carvings and manuscripts, looted by British troops under Sir Robert Napier during his 1867-68 campaign to punish Emperor Tewodros of Abyssinia for imprisoning the British Consul and several missionaries. Fifteen elephants and 200 mules carried away treasures, including some from the Church of the Saviour of the World at Maqdala, that are now divided between the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Library.
In January 2002, however, a tabot that had been found in a cupboard at St John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in Edinburgh was returned to a delegation from Ethiopia.
A campaign for the return of the Ethiopian treasures in the national collections was launched in 1999 by Richard Pankhurst, son of the suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst. He argued that the looting by British troops had no justification in international law and might therefore be considered illegal.
The British Museum has always said that it was unable to return the tabots and that the case was no different from that of the Elgin Marbles, which the Greeks want to retrieve. But now the museum is discussing the possibility of placing the tabots on loan in the two Ethiopian churches in Battersea and Clapham in South London, possibly on a renewable five-year basis.
The case is explored in this month’s The Art Newspaper.
Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, said: “What we’re talking about is objects being housed with the co-operation of the original religious community.â€Â