Plundered gems located in capital as debate goes on over their return
undreds 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 after the British invaded in 1868, has catalogued 538 items in London including everything from scraps of manuscript torn up and stuffed inside a charm bracelet to royal finery and holy relics. They can be found everywhere from major institutions to council collections. Mr Heavens, who worked in Ethiopia as a journalist, said one of the most striking things was the sheer volume.
He said: “The bulk of the plunder was small-ticket items brought back in soldiers’ knapsacks and pockets. Almost all the items are not on display. I have tracked down these items as a way of telling the story. It is not a campaigning book demanding they be returned. That would be up to Ethiopia.”
Some items are well-known, including a crown and royal wedding dress held by the V&A to holy relics called tabots kept in Westminster Abbey and the British Museum, though others including manuscripts in the Wellcome Collection and a scrap of a scroll measuring less than a centimetre held by Southwark council have previously gone unnoticed.
