Priceless 18th-centuries Ethiopian Crown hidden for twenty one
years by one-time Ethiopian refugee who found it in a suitcase is set to be
returned from Netherlands to home.
The idea to return the ornate gilded copper headgear, featuring
images of Christ and the Twelve Apostles, came after
refugee-turned-Dutch-citizen Sirak Asfaw contacted Dutch ‘art detective’ Arthur
Brand, it was learned.
According to AFP news agency, the crown, which is currently
being held in a secure location, would soon be handed to Ethiopian authorities.
Sirak, who works as management consultant for the Dutch
government today, fled the country in the late 1970s during the so-called “Red
Terror” purges.
Once settled in the Netherlands, Sirak used to receive a stream
of Ethiopians, including pilots and diplomats, along with people who had fled a
continuous cycle of hardship in Africa’s most ancient country, the news agency
reported.
While looking for a document, Sirak stumbled upon the crown in a
suitcase left behind by one of his visitors in April 1998.
Despite the fact that he realized that it belongs to Ethiopia,
he vacillated to return the crown home since the country was ruled by
iron-fisted one-party government that would disappear it again.
Sirak, however, said that when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took
office last year, he felt that things had changed sufficiently in Ethiopia to
finally give the crown back.
The Dutch government too confirmed to AFP that Brand had told
them about the crown’s existence saying “its authenticity will now have to be
established in close cooperation with Ethiopian authorities,” before the next
steps will be taken.
Jacopo Gnisci, a research associate at Oxford University who also
examined the artifact and confirmed its authenticity, said there were less than
two dozen of these crowns, called “zewd”, in existence.
“These crowns are of great cultural and symbolic significance in
Ethiopia, as they are usually donated by high-ranking officials to churches in
a practice that reaches as far back as the Late Antiquity,” he added.
This crown has an inscription dating to 1633-34, but Gnisci said
it was more likely to have been made a century later and was commissioned by
one of Ethiopia’s most powerful warlords, “ras” Welde Sellase.
The artifact is currently being stored at a high-security
facility in the Netherlands.
