February 20, 2020
12:44 pm
Ethiopian 18th Century crown returns home from Netherlands
Source BBC NEWS
An 18th Century Ethiopian crown has been returned home after being hidden in a Dutch flat for more than 20 years.
Ethiopian Sirak Asfaw, who fled to the Netherlands in the late 1970s, found the crown in 1998 in the suitcase of a visitor and realised it was stolen.
The management consultant protected it until he alerted a historian and Dutch police of his discovery last year.
On Thursday, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received the crown, thought to be one of just 20 in existence.
The crown has depictions of Jesus Christ, God and the Holy Spirit, as well as Jesus’ disciples, and was probably given to a church by the powerful warlord Welde Sellase hundreds of years ago.
In a tweet, Mr Abiy said he was grateful to Mr Sirak and the Dutch government for the return of the “precious crown”.