Italy Prepares to Return Prized Ethiopian Obelisk

[Veltro]

By Shasta Darlington

ROME (Reuters) - Italy finally looks set to heal a feud with Ethiopia by returning one of its most cherished relics, the obelisk of Axum, taken by fascist invaders almost 70 years ago.


Final details of a plan to transport the 200-tongranite column from Rome to the holy city of Axum are expected to be discussed when Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi meets Italian officials on Thursday and Friday.


Ethiopia has had to build an airstrip to receive the obelisk, the most important symbol of the dawn of Ethiopian civilization, and a road to take it to a pit in the center of town.


"Talks are in the final phase, there are just a few things to check, like whether the road is ready," an Italian government source said.


Government and diplomatic sources said the obelisk could be loaded on to an airplane before Christmas and at the very latest before the Ethiopian rainy season starts in April.


Asked about the road and airstrip, Eshetu Yisma, at the embassy in Rome, said: "From the Ethiopian side everything is ready. They are just agreeing on details on both sides."


But after more than half a century of promises, Ethiopians can be forgiven for being skeptical.


The 24-meter obelisk, believed to be at least 2,000 years old, was split into three and hauled off when fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1937.


After the fall of the dictator Benito Mussolini and his nascent Italian "empire," Rome signed an accord in 1947 agreeing to return stolen relics and art works to Ethiopia.


Another accord was signed in 1956 and another in 1997, but the obelisk with its geometric designs remained in Rome, in front of what had been the Ministry of Italian Africa.


Two years ago, Ethiopia threatened to sever diplomatic ties, eliciting a fresh pledge.


Nature also gave a helping hand. Lightning damaged the obelisk in the same year, spurring Italian authorities to begin dismantling the column.


However, logistical obstacles have delayed its return.


Italy had removed the monument by ship, but the only convenient port now lies in Eritrea, unfriendly to Ethiopia.


So authorities have had to build the airstrip and road, and find an airplane that can handle the obelisk, whose heaviest section weighs over 80 tonnes.


A national holiday has been promised for the day it is finally returned home.


"Until the obelisk is returned to Ethiopia, Mussolini will be laughing at us from his grave," said Richard Pankhurst, a British historian living in Addis Ababa who has led the demands for the return of Ethiopian treasures. (Additional reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa)



Eddy

http://www.commandosupremo.com

[greenhorn]

Haven't the Italians being preparing to return this obelisk for decades?

[J.P. Slovjanski]

What good would it be to Ethiopians unless this obelisk is edible(or can cure AIDS)?

[JLEES]

I went to Rome last November to see that monument, among other things, only to find that they took it down two weeks prior to my arrival. I did see the base of it though. It's too bad they took it down one year ago only to give it back now.
James

[Enrico Cernuschi]

Hello Gentlemen,
my personal opinion is that to give back Ethiopia that Axum obelisk I a swindle.
Anyway the one year delay was caused by the time Addis Ababa needed to make the airstrip necessary to receive the cargo by air (as Ethiopia has no more a sea coast after Eritrea become indipendent).
The much longer delay after the war has an other origin. According an old story that obelisk conceal the secret to find King Salomon's mines. Haggard, marching with Lord Napier army against the Negus Theodor II in 1867 thorught the Haud county, knew about this legend.
An Italian expedition, sponsored by some private societies and with the support of the Party, tried, in 1937 and 1938, to locate them.
As a matter of fact they found something (Platinum) and a little mina was attended by the Cogne company. The metal was sent in Italy by plane until late 1941 and used for the Fivre valves used for the Italian EC3 ter radar. The Cogne men were all slaughtered in March 1941 by sciftà (bandits) ? after their camp had been overruned by the British (better South African and KAR).
I don't know if this history is true and if the eternal British interest in that big stone needele is a not interested one, but if Stefen Spielberg is going to do the fourth movie about Indiana Jones adventures I believe the subject is yet ready.

Bye EC

[Landser]

Enrico C. wrote

but if Stefen Spielberg is going to do the fourth movie about Indiana Jones adventures I believe the subject is yet ready.

Ha,ha ..thats a good one.


I might add the Italiens are probably going to be innocent victims of some blond arian goosestepping sinister
jew hating Nazi coward.

And Harrison Ford will get Sophia L. at the end, without him even asking for her.
Trust me Steven 'the Spielberg" knows how to make history interesting for the dull masses.
Sorry if this was slightly O/T

[Enrico Cernuschi]

What about Monica Bellucci?
EC

[Lupo Solitario]

...overall given that Sophia L. is actually over 70 (perhaps should be better starting to think about a new player for Indy, too...)

Monica Bellucci is ok

If we find one who knows also play, better

As an alternative, I'd offer the plot to Martin Mystere comic books authors...

[Enrico Cernuschi]

For me it's right, but I want a copy of the comic book (and the right to give a look at the screenplay, just to be sure there are not the usual mistakes, like Indiana Jones jumping, in his first book, on an U boat, then to listed the commander ordering, in German, to sail under the water and to see, three days later, all the company off Gibraltar with Professor Jones not even wet after a cruise sitting on the deck of a submerged boat ... ( I presume the producer of the movie was, then, at the end of the budget, needing to end his film soon. The third movie is by far the best).

A little off topic, I think, but why not?

Bye EC

PS Why not Silvio B. in the cast as the imaginative billonare financing the search for the treasure?

[DrG]

The affair of the Axum obelisk should be closed since the end of the 1950's, given that the Negus Neghesti had made a verbal agreement with duke Amedeo d'Aosta (nephiew of the omonimous governor of Italian East Africa in WW2 and son of his brother Aimone di Spoleto, the appointed king of Croatia), in which he told that Italy could keep the obelisk if had built an hospital in Ethiopia. The hospital was built, and in 1969 Hailé Selassié gave the obelisk to Italy, while the following year Italy returned the Lion of Judah to Ethiopia. These revelations were made by the duke of Aosta to Italian newspapers some years ago (I read an interview to the Corriere della Sera, but I cannot find its text now; anyway, the story is summarized here: http://www.ragionpolitica.it/testo.1860.html). As usual with verbal agreements, they are worth nothing (after the Mussolini-Laval negotiations of 1934-35 Italy should have learnt the lesson...) and thus now Ethiopians, even though in Axum there are dozens of obelisks (also larger than the Italian one) completely abandoned, have got the return of that piece of art.

PS Indiana Jones' first movie is wrong, of course: the Ark of Covenant is in Axum, in the Hedar Sion church, not in Tanis in Egypt.
In this thread we have finally discovered Mussolini's true reasons for the occupation of Ethiopia: King Solomon's mines and the Ark of Covenant! Hitler with his Spear of Longinus and Franklin Delano Roosevelt with his exploration in Oak Island looking for its treasure were just amateurs...