A French government official recently said the return of three artifacts to Ethiopia was a diplomatic handover rather than a restitution.
On November 30, France‘s foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot handed over two prehistoric stone axes, bifaces, and a stone cutter to Ethiopia’s tourism minister Selamawit Kassa during a symbolic ceremony at the National Museum of Ethiopia in the capital city of Addis Ababa.
The items are one million to two million years old, and came from excavations from the prehistoric site Melka Kunture, under the direction of French researcher Jean Chavaillon. The three objects were part of a group of approximately 3,500 items stored at the French embassy in Addis Ababa.
“This is a handover, not a restitution, in that these objects have never been part of French public collections,” Laurent Serrano, a culture adviser at the French embassy, told Arab News.
“These artifacts, which date back between 1 and 2 million years, were found during excavations carried out over several decades at a site near the Ethiopian capital,” Serrano added.
The three artifacts were officially transferred to Ethiopia’s heritage authority on December 2.
During the ceremony on November 30, Barrot also announced a new €7 million ($7.35 million) project called “Sustainable Heritage in Ethiopia”. The project will promote Ethiopian historical sites through partnerships between researchers, local authorities and communities, according to the French magazine Entrevue.
For the past two years, the French government has also funded the renovation of Ethiopia’s National Palace, now a museum, through an investment of €25 million ($26.25 million).
The two countries have a 127-year-old bilateral agreement to cooperate in archeology and paleontology. However, while French president Emmanuel Macron announced his plan to return African Heritage to the continent in November 2017, frustration has grown over the lack of progress in the seven years since. As of December 2, there had also been no date scheduled for a bill on colonial items to be debated in the country’s National Assembly.
