Ethiopia: Ministry to Bring Back Hundred Stolen Heritages Home

Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced that it has planned to return around a hundred stolen heritages within 10 years interval having established a new National Heritage Returns Committee- that works on repatriation of looted heritages.

The Director, Ministry of Communication, Endegena Desalegn told to The Ethiopian Herald that the national committee will permanently work on repatriating heritages that were stolen for various reasons and kept in different countries.

The committee is expected to open its own office, organize a sub-committee that is drawn from various sectors such as culture, law, and diplomacy, among others.

Mentioning the country has received different looted heritages from different countries including the first piece of the granite obelisk looted by the troops of the fascist Italian, strands of Emperor Tewodros II’s hair, crowns of earlier kings, he said, however, there are also numbers of unreturned treasures.

“As we know, we have many stolen heritages especially books that depict the ancient civilization and development of the country, wisdom, artifacts made of silver and gold, covenant, including the bones of Prince Alemayehu and sacred church chattels. So, this committee is formed to return those treasures.

Returning the heritages by itself is not enough, equally, it is important to preserve and protect the existed possessions and heritages. To this end, everyone should understand the value of the heritages and play role in preserving them to transfer them to the next generation, he underscored.

Besides, every concerned bodies working in research and conservation of cultural heritages should also play a vital role in keeping and following up heritages, he remarked.