British Museum must return Ethiopian Tabots, insists former curator

Alexander Herman, director of the Institute of Art and Law, echoed this sentiment, saying: “How does that fit into a collection? A good test to verify this is whether any museum today would go out and acquire material of that nature. The answer is obviously no.

“So in a sense, that can be a good rule of thumb for determining whether or not an item is suitable for collection.”

He added that Tabots may be one of the few cases that would meet the criteria for an exception.

“The trustees may dispose of items in the collection if they are deemed unfit and if their return does not harm students,” he said. “But it’s still a question for the trustees.”

‘It’s not their culture’

An Ethiopian priest in London, who asked not to be named, echoed calls for the museum to return the Tabot collection: “It’s not theirs. They took it from a church… it’s not their culture. “They have raped him because he has been touched by many people.”

The comments come after it emerged that up to 2,000 items have been stolen from the British Museum’s warehouses in what is believed to be the largest theft in its history.

Hartwig Fischer, the museum’s director, resigned in the wake of the scandaland Jonathan Williams, his deputy, will stand down pending a police investigation.

In a new post for Returning Heritage, an online resource that debates cultural restitution, McNaught highlighted the “damage to the British Museum’s reputation as a secure custodian of global treasures.”

A spokesperson for the British Museum said the Tabots are housed in a special location, maintained in consultation with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and made available to Ethiopian Orthodox priests and prelates, with a “long-term ambition” to loan them to an Ethiopian Orthodox Church. in the United Kingdom.

A statement said: “The British Museum collection tells the story of human cultural achievements over 2 million years. The presence of the Tabots in the collection, along with other objects from Ethiopia, demonstrates the breadth and diversity of religious traditions in Ethiopia, including Christianity, Islam and Judaism, as well as other religions.”