[CPProt.net] Ethiopian obelisk set for return from Rome

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

Van: shlomo at eastafricaforum.net [mailto:shlomo at eastafricaforum.net] 
Verzonden: maandag 18 april 2005 17:16
Aan: shlomo at eastafricaforum.net
Onderwerp: Ethiopian obelisk set for return from Rome


http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005
-04-18T095602Z_01_SIN835701_RTRUKOC_0_ETHIOPIA-OBELISK.xml
 
Ethiopian obelisk set for return from Rome
 
Mon Apr 18, 2005
     
 
By Tsegaye Tadesse

AXUM, Ethiopia (Reuters) - Ethiopia's 58-year wait for the return of a
plundered national treasure is set to end on Tuesday, when a massive cargo
jet flies the first part of the Axum obelisk from Italy to its historic
home.

The remaining two segments of the pre-Christian granite funerary monument,
believed to be some 1,700 years old and weighing 180 tonnes, will follow in
the next 10 days, engineers supervising the obelisk's reconstruction said on
Monday.

"All is set. The Antonov 124 plane carrying the middle section of the Axum
obelisk, weighing 60 tonnes, will arrive around midday on Tuesday," Italian
engineer Simone Lattanz told Reuters.

Celebrations are planned for the return of the obelisk to Axum, where
bridges have been strengthened and roads widened to accommodate the huge
pieces of stone that make up the column.

The Russian cargo jet is only one of two aircraft powerful enough to carry
the obelisk, which is being flown back to Axum, 850 km (530 miles) north of
the capital Addis Ababa, at Italy's expense.

Italian invaders seized the 24-metre obelisk in 1937 on fascist dictator
Benito Mussolini's orders, who erected it in Rome as a symbol of victory
over Ethiopia in the style of earlier Roman conquerors.

After World War II, in 1947, Italy agreed to return the treasure but
arguments and logistical problems delayed it for decades.

"On our part, we are ready to receive our precious treasure that was stolen
from us 70 years ago," said Tadele Bitul Kibret, vice chairman of the
Ministry of Culture committee organising the return.

Landlocked Ethiopia had to build a bigger runway to accommodate the Antonov.

The re-erection of the monument, known as a stele to archaeologists, is
considered by many to be a serious challenge even for modern engineers, let
alone its ancient builders. It is expected to take three months to restore
it to its original location among other obelisks.

According to Axumites, the obelisk was carved at Gobdera, 5 km (3 miles)
from where it was eventually raised.

"It took 500 elephants and thousands of men to move the massive granite
stele to the site where it was erected," Aba Tesfatsion, an 80-year-old
priest, told Reuters.

The obelisk is considered to be among the finest from Axum, the centre of
pre-Christian Ethiopia's civilisation and the city of the legendary Queen of
Sheba, who ruled 1,000 years before the birth of Christ.

Legend has it that God bestowed his favour on the city after the Queen of
Sheba's son Menelik I stole the Ark of the covenant from his father King
Solomon in Jerusalem and brought it to Axum where many Ethiopians believe it
still remains to this day.