A sword and cloak of one of Ethiopia’s national heroes briefly surfaced on the website of the Italian auction house Capitolium last month, reigniting a fierce debate about the country’s stolen heritage and the difficulties of securing restitution.
“He was a hero, and he should have been treated as a prisoner of war,” Yeshimebet Kassa, one of Ras Desta’s granddaughters, tells The Africa Report. “This man was murdered. My mother was in exile when he was killed, I think she was about eight. She never saw her father again after the war.”
“It’s painful for us that people would think to commercialise what has happened. For these things to come up at auction was incredibly offensive to us,” she adds.
The sword and cloak appeared in late March on the website of Italian auction house Capitolium Art, based in Brescia. The auction is scheduled for today, 8 April. However, it was cancelled after the Ethiopian Heritage Authority (EHA) wrote a letter to Capitolium requesting that the sale be called off.
