The Netherlands return Ethiopian 18th century precious crown

A precious ceremonial crown that disappeared from the church 21 years ago was returned to Ethiopia by the Dutch government.

All these years, the stolen treasure was kept by Sirak Asfaw, a Dutch citizen of Ethiopian descent who emigrated in the late 1970s. He stated that the crown fell into his hands in 1998: he found it in a suitcase left by an unnamed guest in his apartment.

He said that he would not want to return the plundered legacy to the same regime in which it was stolen, so he waited for more than 20 years for the government to change. At the end of last year, Asfo turned to the Dutch Foreign Ministry to say that he owns an artifact that has a great religious and cultural heritage for his native country.

This marked the beginning of a series of negotiations, culminating in a ceremony to hand over the artifact to Ethiopian Prime Minister last Thursday.

Meanwhile, more and more Western governments are pledging to return stolen African artifacts that were looted from the continent many centuries ago.

In November 2019, France handed over to the Senegal government a historic sword and announced that it plans to repatriate even more items stolen from Africa during its colonial rule to their original owners. French collections hold at least 90,000 pieces from sub-Saharan Africa.