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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:A history of the Axum Obelisk return struggle by someone who participated in it
Author:Pankhurst, RichardISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:Horn of Africa
Volume:16
Issue:1-4
Pages:127-143
Language:English
Geographic term:Ethiopia
Subjects:colonialism
war crimes
visual arts
cultural heritage
Abstract:Italy's failure to return the Axum obelisk - which was taken by Italy during its occupation of Ethiopia - in accordance with Article 37 of the 1947 Italian Peace Treaty with the United States and the unsatisfactory character of the Italo-Ethiopian Agreement of 1956, which relegated the question of the stele's restoration to an appendix, inevitably angered many patriotic Ethiopians. This paper relates the history of the attempts to recover the Axumite stela from Rome, including the author's role in the struggle. Attention is paid, amongst others, to the author's publications on the loot of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the founding of the Axum Obelisk Return Committee in 1992, the mobilization of international scholars and organizations, the organization of a petition by the people of Axum in 1996, and the letter of Patriarch Paulos V, Head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, to the Pope of Rome. At last, it was decided in 1997 that the obelisk would be returned within the current year, 1997. In February, 1998, work on dismantling the stele began.
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