The Ethiopian government has said an auction of “colonial loot” brought back to Britain after a 19th-century battle should be halted.
A domed shield seized after the Battle of Maqdala, or Magdala, is due to be sold on Thursday with an estimate of between £800 and £1200. It was one of hundreds of pieces taken by British forces following the 1868 siege, in present-day Ethiopia, when they defeated the emperor Tewodros II.
Ethiopia has lodged official requests for the return of other items seized during the conflict, including manuscripts, textiles and jewellery, that are held by British institutions. However, museums largely funded by the state — the so-called national museums such as the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum — are prevented by law from returning objects to their country of origin.
The shield is made from hide and decorated with white metal strapwork and floral appliquets, according to the auctioneers Anderson & Garland, based in Newcastle upon Tyne.
It is inscribed: “Magdala 13th April 1868” and the carrying handle on the reverse states: “(NB Lord Napier of Magdala 1810-1890).”
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The catalogue entry for the sale gives a detailed summary of the 1868 Abyssinia campaign when Sir Robert Napier, later Lord Napier, led forces against the ruler of the Ethiopian empire, who was holding Protestant missionaries and British diplomats hostage.
It says Napier “ordered the destruction of Tewodros’ artillery and the burning of Magdala as retribution … this included the expedition and its troops looting many local artefacts which they took back to Britain.”
Earlier this month Abebaw Ayalew, director-general of the Ethiopian Heritage Authority, wrote to Anderson & Garland saying that since the “artefact has been wrongly acquired in a context of a punitive expedition to Ethiopia …. the sale [is] inappropriate”.
Ayalew said the auction house should “contact the sellers to arrange for the restitution of this looted item and repatriation to its country of origin and its legally rightful owners”, the Ethiopian government.
Some institutions, including the National Army Museum, have returned objects to Ethiopia that were seized during the campaign while others, including the V&A, have raised the prospect of long-term loans given the bar on permanent returns.
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Three years ago Busby, an auction house in Bridport, Dorset, agreed to a request from the Ethiopian authorities to withdraw two lots from sale, a Coptic bible and a set of horn beakers.
Anderson & Garland did not respond to a request for comment about the Maqdala shield.
It also declined to comment on an item that has been withdrawn from Thursday’s sale — a bullet fired from the gun that Mark Chapman used to kill John Lennon in 1980.
Its now deleted catalogue entry states that a retired police officer, Brian Taylor, had been given the bullet by the New York Police Department when he was on a trip to the city with a group of schoolchildren.
It says that while “on patrol with the NYPD Taylor was involved in a shooting and, being both British and a visitor, he was the only officer unarmed.
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“By way of an apology, and in the knowledge of his being British and a Beatles fan, they took him to a small museum in the Forensic Investigation Division of the New York Police Department in New York City.
“There he was allowed to fire the weapon that fired the bullets that shot one of music’s best and most beloved stars, John Lennon. The bullet and cartridge were retrieved and given to Taylor as a gift.”
