Loot and Plunder @lootplunder Twitter profile

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Loot and Plunder

@lootplunder

8 months

1/2 This is what repatriation looks like. A sacred Tabot stolen by British troops from Ethiopia in 1868, returned this week, reconsecrated and celebrated in St. Mary's Ethiopian Orthodox church London today. Thanks to @alulapan for the footage.

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@lootplunder

1 year

🧵1/11 Lord Hannan of Kingsclere @DanielJHannan fired off a broadside in yesterday's @Telegraph in the war against Britain's "Great Awokening" - a conflict fought on all sides with snippets of history and weaponised quotes. At least one of his quotes looked a bit odd ...

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@lootplunder

2 years

Big news. Announcing the discovery of a long-lost part of Ethiopia's Maqdala plunder - a processional cross that has been lying in an English church for the last 150 years. #ethiopia #maqdala #loot #plunder #tewodros #alemayehu #alamayu

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@lootplunder

2 years

🧵1/11 Another big day for loot in the UK's House of Lords. The headline - during a debate, most speakers said museums should be allowed "to do the right thing" and return loot. Things are shifting. The Elgin Marbles and Ethiopia's treasures could be back sooner than you think...

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@lootplunder

1 year

Loot of the day: While we're thinking of crowns in Britain, let's remember this one, stolen from Ethiopia in 1868, now in the @V_and_A .

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@lootplunder

2 years

1/10 Today, Britain's House of Lords debated whether the British Museum should return 11 Tabots - sacred altar tablets - that were stolen from Ethiopia during Britain's military 'expedition' there in 1868. @BishopWorcester @SteveTheQuip @britishmuseum @alulapan

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@lootplunder

1 year

🧵11/11 @DanielJHannan also cites a king who "was reported" to be making a fortune selling slaves. Another who called the trade "the ruling principle of my people". But the original for that one is just as elusive. In this wokery war, everyone needs better weapons.

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@lootplunder

1 year

Look at this cross! A whole theological system in its intricate carvings. Plundered by the @britishmuseum 's expert on the 1868 invasion of Ethiopia. The most striking thing about the catalogue details? "Location: Not on display." Plunder database entry:

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@lootplunder

1 year

🧵5/11 The problem comes when you try to track down the original. Hugh Thomas cites the memoirs a Liverpool slave captain, Hugh Crow. But you will search those memoirs in vain for any reference to verdicts or oracles. Here's what turns up instead.

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@lootplunder

1 year

🧵7/11 Whatever Bonny's ruler actually said has gone through at least three layers of obfuscation and manipulation. First they are words written down days, months, even years after the event - have a go now at transcribing a conversation you had with your family yesterday.

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@lootplunder

1 year

🧵10/11 The truth is, through all those layers, we will never know what the ruler of Bonny really thought about the trade in enslaved people that exploded in size and corrupted all it touched, fed by British demand...

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@lootplunder

1 year

🧵6/11 These are the words recorded by Hugh Crow: "But we tink trade no stop, for all we Jew-Jew-man' [the priests] tell we so, for dem say you country no can niber pass God A’mighty." Barely a word shared with the widely reproduced "oracle" quote, and deeply suspect in itself.

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Loot and Plunder

@lootplunder

4 months

GOOD NEWS ALERT: (Goodness knows we need some) The King's Own Royal Regiment Museum in Lancaster has employed renowned everything expert @DerilloEyob to look into its collection of artefacts brough back from Britain's 1868 Abyssinian/Ethiopian "Expedition". 🧵1/2

Eyob Derillo

@DerilloEyob

4 months

By fostering collaboration, inclusivity, and academic rigour, the museum aims to contribute to cultural understanding and historical enrichment, ultimately creating a more nuanced and accurate narrative surrounding the Abyssinia Expedition.

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@lootplunder

1 year

So a box of these just arrived. Never mind the content. Check out that cover. Thank you @TheHistoryPress #theprinceandtheplunder

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@lootplunder

1 year

Anyone got any ideas on how Britain's museums could clear a bit of space to display more of their own archaeological heritage?

England's archaeological history gathers dust as museums fill up

Experts say time is running out to solve the storage crisis that has long plagued archaeology.

www.bbc.co.uk

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@lootplunder

1 year

🧵9/11 And third, someone (Hugh Thomas?) has then taken those twisted words and rendered them into formal C19th English. The ridiculous references to people selling excess wives into slavery have been cut. A misrepresented chat has been sanitized into a formal, royal statement.

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@lootplunder

4 months

This covers both of us today - Ethiopian Christmas and the First Sunday of Epiphany. Merry both everyone.

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@lootplunder

2 years

New find! Gospels "procured" on Britain's Abyssinian Expedition in 1868. In a British archive ever since. Still beautiful. #ethiopia #maqdala

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@lootplunder

1 year

🧵8/11 Second, Hugh Crow has clearly written it all up for what he sees as comic effect. "King Holiday" is depicted as a kind of minstrel buffoon. "But God make we black [here the poor fellow shed tears] and we no sabby book."

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@lootplunder

1 year

🧵3/11 It was the perfect quote for @DanielJHannan 's argument - that it was the Africans that wanted slavery and, in the words of the headline he gave his article on his own website, "When it comes to slavery, we British were the goodies".

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@lootplunder

1 year

🧵2/11 He said Britain's decision to end slavery enraged Africa's chiefs, including the ruler of Bonny, who said: "This trade must go on. That is the verdict of our oracle and priests. They say that your country, however great, can never stop a trade ordained by God himself."

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@lootplunder

1 year

🧵4/11 The oracle quote has appeared in other places including the BBC , Hugh Thomas's "The Slave Trade" and more, um, pointed books including "How We Got to Black Lives Matter: The Spawning of Another Leftist Inspired Hate Group".

'My Nigerian great-grandfather sold slaves'

The legacies of colonial slave-traders are being reassessed, but what about the Africans who profited?

www.bbc.co.uk

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@lootplunder

8 months

2/2 It's what happens when something is returned freely and graciously without months of stalling and reactionary op-eds. Tabot returned by @JacopoGnisci , working with, among others, reps of @holysynod , @ScheherazadeThe , @alulapan & Ethio National Heritage Restitution Committee.

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@lootplunder

8 months

@JacopoGnisci @holysynod @ScheherazadeThe @alulapan 3/2 The last time I saw anything like this was more than 20 yrs ago when @FrMcLuckie and @StJohnPrincesSt returned another stolen Ethiopian tabot in Edinburgh. Another joyful and private repatriation - see pic. @britishmuseum still has 10 maybe 11 stolen tabots and @wabbey has 1.

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Loot and Plunder

@lootplunder

1 year

It is a good time to remember the Kwer’ata Re’esu icon - a Renaissance masterpiece of Christ, stolen from Ethiopia, taken on the strangest of all journeys from Windsor to New York to Lisbon. Last seen in a bank vault, wrapped up in newspapers. Read on -

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@lootplunder

8 months

An extraordinary event. The return of a plundered Ethiopian Tabot, three plundered cups and ... a lock of Prince Alamayu's hair (with a lock of Captain Speedy's hair) Organised by the @ScheherazadeThe at @TheAthenaeum1 . Read on for details of the celebration service on Sunday

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Loot and Plunder

@lootplunder

5 months

JUST FOUND: Look at this beautiful 1869 watercolour of Ethiopia's King of Kings Tewodros II, by British war artist William Simpson, now in the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection in @brownlibrary , via @librarycongress . Click on link to see full image.

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@lootplunder

3 years

So museums can get rid of their stock when they want to. The Palm Springs Art Museum in California is selling off an 18/19th Century "Ethiopic Bible" and cross to raise funds for the rest of its collection. $500-$700 #Ethiopia @alulapan @DerilloEyob

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@lootplunder

1 year

Mexico "has spearheaded a social media campaign under the hashtag #MiPatrimonioNoSeVende (“My heritage is not for sale”) that has aided in the recovery of more than 9,000 objects ... a model for other countries."

The Netherlands returns more than 200 pre-Hispanic artefacts to Mexico

In all, 223 pre-Hispanic objects have been repatriated to Mexico by the Dutch government, largely through the power of social media

www.theartnewspaper.com

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@lootplunder

2 years

Ethiopia's fight to win back looted treasures after descendants of UK soldiers 'try to sell on stolen goods'

Ethiopia's fight to win back looted treasures after descendants of UK soldiers 'try to sell on...

British troops looted and plundered thousands of precious artefacts after the Battle of Magdala in 1868. Fast forward 153 years and the descendants of the same soldiers put a number of the treasures...

news.sky.com

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Loot and Plunder

@lootplunder

2 years

Hi all. Here's the cover of 'The Prince and the Plunder', fresh from the designers at The History Press. It's due out on June 2. Sign up to find out more at . If you've already joined the newsletter but haven't received one, please check your spam folders.

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Loot and Plunder

@lootplunder

2 years

Does anyone know of examples of people from history condemning looting and plundering? Thought it might be interesting to build up a thread of quotes to challenge the idea that repatriation campaigners are just 21st century people imposing their values on the past.

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Loot and Plunder

@lootplunder

1 year

Dear ChatGPT, write a poem about Ethiopia's Prince Alamayu

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@lootplunder

2 years

1/5 Soldiers didn't just steal books after storming Ethiopia's mountain fortress of Maqdala in 1868. They ripped them up to remove the illustrations - and dealers later did the same for easier sales. Here are where some of the surviving pages ended up ...

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@lootplunder

3 months

You wait for ages for an Ethiopian shield to turn up, then three come along at once One in Newcastle, marked with the date of Britain's plunder of Maqdala Two in Italy, 1 dated 1890 ... linked to Menelik ... on sale in *Italy* Hmm

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@lootplunder

1 year

This feels like a big deal. The @britishlibrary has one of the biggest collections of Ethiopian manuscripts outside Ethiopia - certainly the biggest collection of plundered Maqdala books. If it insists on keeping them, it ought to have someone dedicated to looking after them.

Eyob Derillo

@DerilloEyob

1 year

Dear friends, from today my job title changes to Asian & African Collections Reference Specialist @britishlibrary unfortunately the post of Curator of Ethiopian collections was deleted from the structure. I will continue my work on the #Ethiopian MSS as independent researcher.

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@lootplunder

3 years

Ethiopian artefacts have spread far and wide from the deserts of California (see past tweets) to the chilly heights of Edinburgh Castle. Here is "Theodore's Cup" taken from Maqdala in 1868 and brought to Scotland. Still there. #maqdala #ethiopia

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@lootplunder

9 months

🧵1/6 Twenty-four engraved faces of Ethiopia's King of King's Tewodros II. How likely is is that any of them are accurate?

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@lootplunder

1 year

Ethiopian loot of the day: The manuscript rejected by Queen Victoria. The British forces gave 16 of the best plundered manuscripts to Victoria after their return in 1868. She kept six and sent back 10, including this copy of the Miracles of Mary. #ethiopia

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@lootplunder

2 months

This is only going to mean something to a select group of people, but I have found Captain Speedy! After a life that took him from India to New Zealand to Maqdala to Penang, Prince Alamayu's guardian ended up behind this plaque in Birmingham Crematorium, on the road to Walsall.

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@lootplunder

1 year

Big announcement. I have started building up the first full directory of Ethiopia's missing Maqdala plunder. First entry - Queen Tirunesh's dress, now at the @V_and_A . Please follow the link, leave lots of comments and check back for more loot listings.

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@lootplunder

2 years

My book The Prince and the Plunder - about how Britain stole one boy and piles of treasure from Ethiopia - is out next year with The History Press. You can go to to sign up for updates.

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@lootplunder

2 years

It's a big day for Ethiopian plunder in Britain's House of Lords today #ethiopia #magdala #maqdala #tabots @britishmuseum @FrMcLuckie

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@lootplunder

11 months

Today in 1938: "Zerai Deres, an Eritrean working in Rome as a translator, is mocked by a crowd of Italians when he kneels and prays before the Lion of Judah statue that was looted from Addis Ababa in 1935 ...

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@lootplunder

2 years

Just realised that 2023 will be a big year for reassessing British plunder policy - 60 years since the last version of the British Museum Act, 40 years since the National Heritage Act - the key pieces of legislation that stop museums returning loot #repatriation #loot #plunder

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@lootplunder

1 year

"'I feel for (Prince Alemayehu) as if I knew him. He was dislocated from Ethiopia, from Africa, and remained (in the UK) as if he had no home,' his descendent Abebech Kasa told the BBC ... Andrew Heavens' book The Prince and the Plunder recounts his life."

Ethiopia's Prince Alemayehu: Buckingham Palace rejects calls to return royal's body

Exhuming Prince Alemayehu's body would disrupt the remains of others, Buckingham Palace says.

www.bbc.co.uk

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@lootplunder

10 months

🧵1/4 Among the joys of writing a book are the doors that open and the people you meet after it's published. The grandest door that opened for me was at the former home of H.I.M. Haile Selassie - @FairfieldHouse_ in Bath, where nothing short of a miracle happened last week ...

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@lootplunder

1 year

Happy Happy Birthday to Ethiopia's Prince Alamayu. He is 162 today. To celebrate, here is a beautiful sketch of him at Exeter St Davids train station, July 1868. He was seven. (Thanks to @GheeBowman for spotting it.) Why not buy yourself a present : )

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@lootplunder

8 months

These figures came as a surprise to me. Is the extent of China's repatriation efforts widely known? "China has successfully facilitated the return of over 150,000 looted cultural relics in more than 300 batches from 1949 to 2019."

Western museums’ fear of domino effect makes return of lost artifacts overseas hard

In the wake of the approximately 2,000 artifacts stolen from the British Museum, another museum in Cologne, Germany, was robbed, resulting in the loss of valuable Chinese porcelain of the Ming and...

www.globaltimes.cn

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@lootplunder

2 years

Quote of the day - Captain Speedy on Ethiopia's Prince Alamayu: "He is the best boy in the Universe ... The child has entwined himself round our hearts, and as we have no family it seems as if Providence has given himself to us." Sign up to read more on

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@lootplunder

8 months

Had a great conversation yesterday about this diptych (top left), taken from Ethiopia in 1868, now in the @britishmuseum - It struck me how many of the Maqdala artefacts are themselves cultural conversations - the best kind of cross-cultural mashups.

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@lootplunder

1 year

No suggestion it's loot. Just a beautiful depiction of Mary and the baby Jesus in an "Ethiopian prayer book" on sale in Zurich from Dec 14-16 for 440 euros. Specially for the start of the Orthodox Fast of the Nativity/Prophets.

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@lootplunder

2 years

4/11 Lord McNally of the Lib Dems: "I think we would have far more national pride ... to witness King Charles in Athens returning the Parthenon marbles than spending another several years arguing the small print of a deal. Real national pride is doing the right thing." @elginism

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@lootplunder

1 year

Loot of the day, Coronation Edition - King Charles's Six Looted Ethiopian Manuscripts. Taken during Britain's 1868 "expedition". Given to Queen Victoria. "Six of the finest Ethiopian religious manuscripts in existence," said Ethio expert and suffragette's son Richard Pankhurst...

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@lootplunder

1 year

"Somehow became owned" is a great phrase. Will be added to the list, alongside "fell into the hands of", "acquired", "picked up" and "found".

Dr Jonathan Foyle 

@JonathanFoyle

1 year

At the auctions today: a host of C15 angels from St Martin Le Grand, York, bombed in 1942- these somehow became owned by the architect George Pace who repaired the church in the 1960s. Est £30,000-40,000 + commission.

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@lootplunder

7 months

🧵1/6 A tenuous trail linking Ethiopia and Britain through the medium of imperial stationery. Only for the truly obsessed. About 155 years ago British troops stormed into Ethiopia, defeated its King of Kings Tewodros II and stole lots of stuff, including his imperial seal ...

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@lootplunder

3 months

This is a big deal. In fact this "is a huge deal," said author Andrew Heavens. Great scoop by @RobDexES in the @EveningStandard #ethiopia #tabots #maqdala #magdala #plunder Westminster Abbey in discussions to return sacred Ethiopian treasure

Westminster Abbey in discussions to return sacred Ethiopian treasure

The Abbey is in discussions about possible return of looted tablet

www.standard.co.uk

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@lootplunder

2 months

🧵1/3 Has anyone seen this book? The Lives of Maba Seyon and Gabra Krestos Looted during Britain's attack on Maqdala, Ethiopia in 1868 Last seen in the collection of Lady Meux, a banjo-playing barmaid turned society heiress, c 1910. Her will leaving it to Ethiopia was ignored.

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@lootplunder

8 months

In living colour - for the first time in more than a century! @TheArtNewspaper 's Martin Bailey has published colour photos and more details on Ethiopia's stolen Kwer’ata Re’esu icon. And "The Prince and the Plunder" gets a mention!

Exclusive: first colour photographs shed fresh light on Ethiopia's most treasured icon and its...

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...

www.theartnewspaper.com

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@lootplunder

6 months

Amharic ignorance alert (mine) - Could someone help by translating this please #ethiopia #menelik

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@lootplunder

1 year

155 years ago today ... British troops stormed Ethiopia's mountain fortress of Maqdala, defiled the body of its King of Kings Tewodros II and plundered the summit. As the dust settled, they also found a 6-year-old boy laying low with his mother. Read on

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@lootplunder

1 year

"Nigeria is a sovereign nation and should be allowed to do what it wants with the pieces of culture stolen from it ... Honestly, I would understand if the Oba were to decide that some of the bronzes should never be viewed by Europeans again." @KarenAttiah

Opinion | Nigeria should do what it wants with the Benin Bronzes

The outgoing president of Nigeria has granted ownership of the bronzes to the current king of Benin, and Westerners are in a tizzy.

www.washingtonpost.com

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@lootplunder

2 years

In Ethiopia, the name of Magdala lives on as one of the battlegrounds of empire, where King of Kings Tewodros II took his own life rather than face defeat at the hands of the British in the build-up to the Scramble for Africa. In London NW3, it lives on as pub.

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@lootplunder

2 years

Look at this stunning painting of Alamayu arriving in London, by Addis-based artist Leykun Girma @leykungirma . I think it's amazing. Wish I hadn't already sorted my cover. #alamayu #alemayehu #maqdala

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@lootplunder

2 years

Loot of the day: A manuscript of "magical prayers and prescriptions" taken from Magdala, Ethiopia by British soldiers in 1868. "A small vellum leaf is bound in containing a magical formula for changing into a lion or another beast." In the @britishlibrary

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@lootplunder

2 years

1/5 Big day for Ethiopia's stolen tabots. They are making headlines in two newspapers. The basics - tabots are sacred, sacred artefacts. The @britishmuseum has at least 10, looted in 1868. It agrees they are too sacred to display. But it has refused to return them for 150+ years.

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@lootplunder

1 month

One of my pipe dreams was to move back to Addis for a year or two and rent an apartment in an old building in the Piassa... Dismay in Addis Ababa as ‘the soul of the city’ is razed for development

Dismay in Addis Ababa as ‘the soul of the city’ is razed for development

Ethiopia’s push to attract tourism and investment has seen the demolition of a historic district in the capital, with people’s homes and livelihoods destroyed

www.theguardian.com

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@lootplunder

7 months

I have read lots about how Brits saw the Ethiopians in the C19th while researching my book. But how did Ethiopians see the British? Here is a depiction of Queen Victoria in an illustrated letter to her in 1867 from the future Emperor Menelik II. In @UkNatArchives More info coming

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@lootplunder

1 year

"The @britishmuseum has explored lending (the Tabots) to the Ethiopian Church in the UK ... something that Ethiopian officials view as unacceptable. 'You can’t loan God to a church,' said @frezerhaile , a former diplomatic adviser at the Ethiopian Embassy."

The British Museum Holds the Line on Its Imperial Loot

Major international museums are increasingly giving back plundered treasure, but the London institution has long resisted returning artifacts from the colonial era, including prizes such as the Elgin...

www.wsj.com

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@lootplunder

1 year

How much are metal-detectorists "taking" from the archaeological record every month, every year, every decade in Britain? @PortantIssues goes undercover on a metal-detecting forum and does the sums.

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@lootplunder

1 year

Loot of the day: One more piece of regalia for today's coronation celebrations. A silk brocade royal robe stolen from Ethiopia in 1868, now in the @britishmuseum

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@lootplunder

5 months

🧵1/3 One of the most painful episodes in the story of Ethiopia's Prince Alamayu is the sudden death of his mother as the British troops brought them both down from Maqdala. Here is the best known image of her funeral. Much more revealing are the sketches used to compose it...

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@lootplunder

1 year

Poet urges UK to return Ethiopia’s ‘stolen’ prince

Award-winning poet Lemn Sissay calls for the remains of Prince Alemayehu, who died at the age of 18, to go back to his homeland.

www.voice-online.co.uk

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@lootplunder

1 year

"This is such an emotional issue because it reminds everyone of Alemayehu’s plight — a child stuck in a foreign land, never allowed to go home," Andrew Heavens, author of a new book on Alemayehu titled "The Prince and the Plunder," told NBC News.

British royals refuse to return the remains of 'stolen' teenage prince

Prince Alemayehu was taken to England after British forces defeated his father and looted his imperial capital. Ethiopia has been asking for his remains to be returned for 150 years.

www.nbcnews.com

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@lootplunder

7 months

My natural habitat - Abyssinias Square in the heart of Athens - a home to old records, old books and Cafe Avissinia (great even though it doesn't serve Ethio food) - and it is called *Abyssinias* Square! - apparently has been since the days of Tewodros

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@lootplunder

3 months

Breaking news - Sale of looted Ethiopian shield cancelled!!

The Voice Newspaper

@TheVoiceNews

3 months

NEW: Looted Ethiopian shield due to be auctioned in UK withdrawn after public outcry Campaigners had branded the sale as “unethical” and demanded the historic item was removed. By @S_Fleary1

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@lootplunder

2 months

Captain Speedy, the guardian of Ethiopia's Prince Alamayu who met three Ethiopian Emperors - Tewodros, Yohannes and Menelik - died after catching a chill while giving a talk about his adventures at a garden party in his home town of Church Stretton, South Shropshire in 1910.

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@lootplunder

2 years

3/10 Five lords and bishops spoke in favour of returning the Tabots, citing justice and principle. It remined me of another parliamentary debate in 1871 when William Gladstone himself used similar language to decry the plunder. See the C19th debate here

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@lootplunder

1 month

🧵1/4 In which @mcnaught_lewis pushes the restitution debate/campaign into new legal territory. With a challenge to find out why the @britishmuseum is being so secretive about the reasons behind its reluctance to return stolen sacred tabots to Ethiopia

British Museum faces investigation over sacred Tabots

The British Museum has shown itself adept at refusing to provide information to questions they’d prefer not to answer. We hope our initiative to escalate concerns about the Museum’s collection of...

www.returningheritage.com

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@lootplunder

8 months

👇👇👇The huge cost of reproducing images from publicly-funded institutions across Britain, not just @britishmuseum , came as a shock when I was working on my book. Often images of looted objects. Also the controls on using your own photos. In the US, images were hi-res and free.

Dr Katherine Blouin 🍉

@isisnaucratis

8 months

Museum copyrights gatekeeping, @britishmuseum style 🧵: An author who contributes to the Handbook wishes to include pictures of musem displays that they took themselves (so objects in their display context w label etc.). 1/

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@lootplunder

1 year

My book, The Prince and the Plunder, now available in lots of places

The Prince and the Plunder | Linktree

Linktree. Make your link do more.

linktr.ee

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@lootplunder

2 years

Going to leave out the exact location for a bit, so the church team can get its head around the whole story. It wasn't them that took it after all. Can anyone help with identifying the figures and translating the Ge'ez?

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@lootplunder

3 months

"Ghosts of the British Museum ... unmasks the museum as a site of ongoing conflict, where restless objects are held against their will. It now appears that the objects are fighting back." Sounds amazing @museo_ghosts . Any of those objects from Maqdala?

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@lootplunder

10 months

Scholars Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy "say African nations face a double task: first, restoring memory through reclaiming heritage, second, a process of “self-reinvention” that connects reclaimed artifacts to present-day societies."

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@lootplunder

10 months

The books are stacked, the posters are up and the audience is gathering for The Prince and the Plunder launch at Fairfield House in Bath, the home of H.I.M. Haile Selassie. It starts at 2pm. Come if you're in the area.

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@lootplunder

2 months

If anyone is interested in where the rest of Ethiopia's Maqdala loot ended up, I am building up a list on my book's website Look half way down in the right hand column.

alula pankhurst

@alulapan

3 months

"There’s a growing momentum behind the return of artefacts looted during the Maqdala campaign" @OpenRestitution @ArtRestitution @RM_Arjanti @NEAuctioneers @FendikaCenter @yzmuseum @mfaethiopia @POEthiopia @lemnsissay @lootplunder @CombatLooting

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@lootplunder

2 years

2/10 Basic background: Tabots are sacred to Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. The British Museum has promised it will never display or study them - they are locked in a room. Nevertheless, it has refused to return them. It says it is considering 'loaning' them to a church in the UK.

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@lootplunder

1 year

Event alert: On Thursday April 13, in Edinburgh, I will be talking with Fr John McLuckie - the priest who found and returned the Ethiopian Tabot in 2001/2. The talk will be the Scottish launch of The Prince and the Plunder. Reserve your free tickets here -

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@lootplunder

1 year

A world exclusive. The first known shot of the cupboard. The Edinburgh cupboard, inside which, around 20 years go today, @FrMcLuckie (pictured) found a plundered Ethiopian tabot. He and his congregation then showed the world how to do repatriation.

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@lootplunder

7 months

So want this! 16-year-old Hector Munro of the East India Company's army being mauled by a tiger in 1792 - in Staffordshire pearlware - on sale for only £20-30,000. Apparently his younger brother was eaten by a shark in 1804. Don't think they did that one.

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@lootplunder

2 years

8/10 It's a strange argument - something along the lines of saying it's not stealing if you steal something that has already been stolen. And it is very close to what an army officer wrote in an article excusing the plunder in 1868.

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@lootplunder

3 years

This is uncanny. On the same day as the U.S. auction - Nov. 9 - two more 19th Century "Ethiopian bibles" are on sale at Chiswick Auctions in London. Absolutely no details in the notes on how they got there. #ethiopia

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@lootplunder

1 year

🧵1/5 And here's another multicoloured dream tent taken by the British from Ethiopia in 1868 and now in the @britishmuseum . This time with a photo showing how it might have looked when it was put up. Plunder database entry:

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@lootplunder

1 year

“It’s clear that it’s not just about the objects. Decolonising is also something you have to do in your head." - The Royal Museum for Central Africa's new director Bart Ouvry, driving Belgium's new repatriation policy.

Belgium to return looted artefacts from colonial past

Belgium hopes to turn the page on the darkest chapter of its history this year with the return of human remains and cultural objects that were plundered during

www.thetimes.co.uk

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@lootplunder

1 year

Alamayu has made it into the Smithsonian Magazine!

Buckingham Palace Refuses to Repatriate Remains of Ethiopian Prince

Taken from his home as a small child, Prince Dejatch Alemayehu died in England at age 18

www.smithsonianmag.com

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@lootplunder

2 years

My book 'The Prince and the Plunder' - about how Britain took one boy and piles of treasure from Ethiopia - is out on June 2, 2022 with The History Press. You can go to to sign up for updates.

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@lootplunder

1 year

Thank you very much everyone who came to the Prince and the Plunder/Loot event at the wonderful @Hatchards Bookshop yesterday - particularly to @BarnabyPhillips for holding it all together. Friends, family and Prince Alamayu fans - the perfect crowd. #ethiopia @TheHistoryPress

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@lootplunder

1 year

"Hundreds of cultural treasures seized from Ethiopia by British soldiers have been identified in the capital after new research. Author Andrew Heavens, whose book The Prince and the Plunder details how the treasure was brought back to this country ..."

Hundreds of cultural treasures seized from Ethiopia found in London

Plundered gems located in capital as debate goes on over their return

www.standard.co.uk

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@lootplunder

1 year

Thrilled to see my book "The Prince and the Plunder" in this week's Economist. It calls it a "vivid new book" and includes an interview with @frezerhaile who takes the whole repatriation debate on into new territory. #ethiopia #loot #plunder #maqdala

How an Ethiopian prince came to be buried at Windsor Castle

His story is a parable of the pain and guilt of colonial-era looting

www.economist.com

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@lootplunder

8 months

@AlJarrar2 @iamrana @alulapan An incomplete definition is that it's a sacred, sacred altar tablet at the heart of every Ethiopian Orthodox Church

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