[CPProt.net] FW: Ethiopia to get obelisk back

[Museum Security Network / Cultural Property Protection Net (Ton Cremers)]

Van: shlomo at eastafricaforum.net [mailto:shlomo at eastafricaforum.net] 
Verzonden: maandag 4 april 2005 23:25
Aan: shlomo at eastafricaforum.net
Onderwerp: Ethiopia to get obelisk back


http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1685128,00.html
 

Ethiopia to get obelisk back


04/04/2005 

Addis Ababa - Italy will return to Ethiopia the first piece of the ancient
Axum obelisk on April 11, a government spokesman said Monday, ending a
dispute over the religious monument taken to Rome 70 years ago. 

The top piece of the 1 700-year-old obelisk will leave Rome by cargo plane
on April 10 and be flown directly to Axum, Ethiopian foreign ministry
spokesperson Solomon Abebe said. 

"The first part of the Axum obelisk will be returned to Ethiopia early on
April 11," he said. 

The obelisk has been cut into three pieces, the top one weighing 40 metric
tons. 

In 1937, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini ordered the seizure of the 25m
obelisk from the religious city of Axum, 850km north of the capital, Addis
Ababa. The monument was erected in downtown Rome as a war prize from Italy's
invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. 

Italy has agreed to pay for the transport of the 160-metric ton obelisk by
cargo plane and reconstruct it at its original site in Axum. 

Italy signed a pledge to the United Nations in 1947 to return all of the
property plundered from Ethiopia, but has so far not followed through. The
obelisk was damaged by lightning in 2003, which sent several large chunks at
the top to the ground.