A sacred book looted by British forces from an Ethiopian king has prompted an intense ownership dispute after it resurfaced in a private sales catalogue nearly 160 years after it was stolen. The Gondarine Gospel, an ancient bible originally in the possession of Emperor Tewodros II, was listed among rare books meant to be sold at the ongoing Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. It was listed for sale at $250,000.
Ethiopian authorities have urgently requested that the relic be removed and returned on ‘moral and ethical’ grounds. The matter has provoked calls for wider-scale restitution of looted artefacts in Ethiopia. It has also reignited ongoing global debates over the responsibility of Western museums and collectors to return hundreds of thousands of Africa’s stolen treasures.
However, Inlibris, in its response to the EHA, rejected the call, arguing that there are “no legal grounds for restitution”, as no laws existed before the 18th century guiding against the looting of cultural items during conflict and that the book’s present owner is thus not obliged to surrender it. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Inlibris head Hugo Wertscherk did not name the collector but said handing over the book to Ethiopian authorities would be illegal. I am only a businessman,” he said.
Wertscherk denied attempting to sell the bible at the Abu Dhabi fair and said it was only listed as a prop. The Gondarine Gospel, bound in glossy leather and featuring intricate gold patterns, was stolen from the library of the powerful monarch, Emperor Tewodros. Written in Ge’ez, an ancient South Semitic language, the manuscript contains 235 striking illustrations narrating the Gospel of Luke and John in vivid reds, greens and yellows.
It was likely originally commissioned between 1730 and 1734 in the city of Gondar. Emperor Tewodros ruled Ethiopia from 1855 until he died in 1868, during the Battle of Magdala. On his many conquests, he gathered a vast collection of treasures for his great imperial library, which some historians call Ethiopia’s first modern museum.
In the mid-1860s, as his empire was increasingly threatened by an expanding Ottoman Empire and lesser, rival lords, Tewodros wrote to Queen Victoria for support, having long allied with Britain as a fellow Christian power. When she failed to respond, Tewodros imprisoned British diplomats, prompting Britain to declare war. On April 9, 1868, 13,000 troops dispatched from then-British India descended on the king’s court in Magdala and killed Tewodros’ 4,000 soldiers.
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