Ethiopiaâs government on Thursday assumed custody of a priceless 18th-century crown that a former refugee had kept hidden in his apartment in the Netherlands for two decades.
The handover took place at a ceremony in Ethiopiaâs capital, Addis Ababa, attended by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Sigrid Kaag, the Dutch minister for foreign trade and development cooperation.
Sirak Asfaw, the one-time refugee who is now a Dutch citizen, fled Ethiopia during the late 1970s during the so-called âRed Terrorâ purges.
He found the gilded crown â which features images of Christ and the Twelve Apostles â in 1998 in a suitcase left behind by a visitor.
It had âdisappearedâ from the Holy Trinity Church in Cheleqot, a village in northern Ethiopia, the Dutch government said in a statement Thursday.
Sirak assumed the crown had been stolen but worried it would âjust disappear againâ if he returned it to Ethiopiaâs leaders, so he kept it in his apartment in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, he told AFP last year.Â
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Only after Ethiopiaâs Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018 did Sirak feel comfortable handing it over.
He then contacted Arthur Brand, a renowned Dutch art detective, who brought the story to the Dutch governmentâs attention.
âWeâre honoured and delighted to have been able to facilitate the rightful return,â Kaag, the Dutch minister, said in a statement Thursday.
Abiy thanked the Dutch government for organising the artefactâs return, according to a report from state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate, which noted that the crown âis thought to be one of just 20 in existenceâ.
By Thursday afternoon, the crown was on display at Ethiopiaâs National Museum.
[AFP]
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