[CPProt.net] FW: UNESCO to draw up re-installation project for Axum obelisk

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

http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=13015
 
  	
Aksum Obelisk Returns to Ethiopia	
 <http://www.artdaily.com/imagenes/2005/03/18/AXUM.jpg> 
Aksum obelisk.

March 18, 2005


	PARIS, FRANCE.- At the request of the Ethiopian and Italian
governments, UNESCO will send an evaluation team to Aksum, in northern
Ethiopia, to prepare the return of its celebrated obelisk. The obelisk has
been in Rome since 1937. 

UNESCO will draw up the re-installation project for the obelisk and the
development of the site, which will be funded by Italy. The obelisk has been
cut into three sections to facilitate its transportation and is at Rome
airport waiting to be flown to Ethiopia. The first section, weighing 60
tonnes, is expected to arrive in Aksum in early April. 

On November 18 last year, the two governments signed an agreement for the
return of the Aksum obelisk, in keeping with the 1972 Convention concerning
the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The World
Heritage Convention commits States Parties, to “give their help in the
identification, protection, conservation and presentation of the cultural
and natural heritage.” The Aksum archaeological site was inscribed on the
World Heritage List in 1980. In virtue of the Convention, both States
Parties requested UNESCO’s cooperation in returning the obelisk to its
original site. 

“This highly symbolic gesture, born of a common agreement between Italy and
Ethiopia is to be welcomed by the entire international community,” said
UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura. “This is a historic moment. After
68 years in exile, the Aksum obelisk returns to the heart of ancient
Ethiopia, to the Tigrai region. It will once again be erected in the former
kingdom, which the Persian philosopher Mani called the ‘world’s third
kingdom’ and whose relics were among the first to be inscribed on the World
Heritage List.” 

The funeral stele, weighing 160 tonnes and standing 24 metres high, is
around 1,700 years old and has become a symbol of the Ethiopian people’s
identity. In 1937 the Italian army took it to Italy. 

Following the signing of two agreements by Italy and Ethiopia, in 1956 and
1997, Ethiopia formed a national committee for the return of the obelisk.
This committee, working with the International Centre for the Study of the
Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), has carried out
research and technical analyses to prepare the segmentation and
transportation of the obelisk to Ethiopia. 

Ahead of the obelisk’s return, the Ethiopian authorities responsible for its
transportation from Aksum airport to the archaeological site, have already
modernized the airport and reinforced the two bridges it will cross on its
journey.