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London’s Victoria and Albert Museum began talks with the Ethiopian embassy about the return of looted treasures from its collections, including a gold crown and a royal wedding dress, taken out of the country more than 150 years ago.
Ethiopians have campaigned for the return of the items since they were looted after the capture of Maqdala in 1868 in what was then Abyssinia. Ethiopia submitted a formal restitution claim in 2007 for hundreds of important Maqdala artifacts held by various British institutions, which was rejected.
Tim Reeve, deputy director of the V&A, told the Cheltenham Literature Festival that the move was part of the V&A job to “decolonize” its collections and have a more honest conversation about history.
“There is no dispute as to whether they were loaned or not; they were looted and that is a story that we have tried to tell very openly and very honestly at the V&A, ”he said.
“Provenance is an important area for museums to invest in investigating where these objects come from and how they came to be in these national collections. Being able to tell a much more complete, holistic, accurate and honest story about those objects. “
Reeve said a long-term loan was being discussed as an initial step to return the treasures, given that the V&A and other national museums were prohibited by UK law from simply returning items in perpetuity.
“We are in very close discussions with the Ethiopian embassy about those artifacts and how they might, in due course, find their way back to Ethiopia,” he said. “A long-term loan of these items as a kind of initial step is the kind of thing that we want to discuss if the right conditions exist and if they agree with the Ethiopian embassy.
“The next step is exactly how we are doing it with Maqdala, which is trying to find a way forward, a long-term solution for these objects.”
Hundreds of artifacts were looted after a military expedition to secure the release of the British hostages taken by Tewodros II. The British victory culminated in the suicide of the emperor and the destruction of his fortress.
They are now held at dozens of institutions across the UK, from the British Museum and the British Library in London to the Royal Library at Windsor Castle and the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
Reeve also discussed the future of funding for the arts sector amid the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic, describing the current situation as “cataclysmic” and at risk of “rolling back decades” of progress.
He called on the government to establish a contingency plan for the small number of museums whose business model, which is highly dependent on visitor income, is affected by the current crisis.
“It doesn’t seem like a sensible approach to have to anchor the anchor the way all these great museums have had to for the last six months and start building from scratch more or less,” Reeve said. , adding that reintroducing entry fees was a “false economy.”
“There has to be something that is there as a safety net so that everyone does not go back decades and decades of hard work, investment and creativity.”
