Lalibela Cross
Object or Group Name
Lalibela Cross
Case Summary
The Lalibela processional cross, believed to be about 800 years old, is considered one of Ethiopia's most prized religious artifacts. It belongs to the church of Bete Medhane Alem (the Saviour of the World) among the rock hewn churches of the holy city of Lalibela, a UNESCO heritage site in the Amhara Region of Northern Ethiopia.
The brass cross is believed to have miraculous healing powers referred to in its formal name, Afro Aygebam, meaning "it will not return to the church in shame."
The cross was constantly guarded but a hotel owner whose daughter was sick persuaded a priest to sneak it out of the church on March 9, 1997 when one guard was ill and other asleep. The father, who hoped the cross would heal his sick daughter, plied the priest with alcohol until he fell asleep. When the priest awoke back at the church the cross had disappeared.
Around midnight on March 9 residents were awoken by the sound of a ringing bell, confused voices and gunshots. Word spread that the cross had disappeared. The police made several arrests but had to release the suspects. The priest later came to the police and admitted that he and the hotel owner were the culprits. The police arrested the priest and questioned the father and brother of the girl, who claimed to have buried the cross in their backyard. However, a police excavation failed to find the cross.
Two years later, in June 1999, the police traced it and arrested some antique dealers. After interrogations they found out that the brother of the girl had smuggled it out of Lalibela and sold it for one thousand birr (around USD$115) to an antique dealer in the town of Dessie, some 280 kilometers south, who had kept it hidden for a year.
The dealer sold it on for an unknown amount to a dealer in Addis Ababa. He kept it hidden for a year and sold it to a Belgian collector, who had been coming to Ethiopia and who he had known since 1994, for the sum of USD$25,000 US dollars.
Peter Gabriel Robleh, the Ethiopian ambassador to Belgium, informed the Belgian authorities and the cross was intercepted by the customs at Brussels' Zaventem airport in a parcel from an international courier labeled Ethiopian handicrafts. However, since there are no binding agreements between Belgium and Ethiopia customs authorities could not seize it.
The Ethiopian embassy in Brussels engaged a lawyer who advised against legal proceedings since it would be difficult to prove bad faith on the part of the collector and suggested to try to convince him to return it. A representative of the Embassy approached the collector, who agreed to return it if he got his money back.
The Ethiopian authorities agreed to pay for its return and the cross was flown back by the Ambassador in 1999 (though other sources wrongly claimed 2001) with crowds cheering. The Belgian Ambassador invited Ethiopian experts from the Ministry of Culture and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to inspect the Cross and it was compared with photographs and authenticated.
The cross was handed over ceremoniously in the presence of the Ethiopian Patriarch, with the Ethiopian Minister of Culture signing for the receipt. The cross was then flown back to Lalibela and a ceremony held in the presence of a representative from the Belgian Embassy.
Since neither Belgium nor Ethiopia have signed the 1995 UNIDROIT convention on stolen or illegally exported cultural objects, the collector was not punished and got his money back, while the priest and dealers received multiyear sentences.
The brass cross is believed to have miraculous healing powers referred to in its formal name, Afro Aygebam, meaning "it will not return to the church in shame."
The cross was constantly guarded but a hotel owner whose daughter was sick persuaded a priest to sneak it out of the church on March 9, 1997 when one guard was ill and other asleep. The father, who hoped the cross would heal his sick daughter, plied the priest with alcohol until he fell asleep. When the priest awoke back at the church the cross had disappeared.
Around midnight on March 9 residents were awoken by the sound of a ringing bell, confused voices and gunshots. Word spread that the cross had disappeared. The police made several arrests but had to release the suspects. The priest later came to the police and admitted that he and the hotel owner were the culprits. The police arrested the priest and questioned the father and brother of the girl, who claimed to have buried the cross in their backyard. However, a police excavation failed to find the cross.
Two years later, in June 1999, the police traced it and arrested some antique dealers. After interrogations they found out that the brother of the girl had smuggled it out of Lalibela and sold it for one thousand birr (around USD$115) to an antique dealer in the town of Dessie, some 280 kilometers south, who had kept it hidden for a year.
The dealer sold it on for an unknown amount to a dealer in Addis Ababa. He kept it hidden for a year and sold it to a Belgian collector, who had been coming to Ethiopia and who he had known since 1994, for the sum of USD$25,000 US dollars.
Peter Gabriel Robleh, the Ethiopian ambassador to Belgium, informed the Belgian authorities and the cross was intercepted by the customs at Brussels' Zaventem airport in a parcel from an international courier labeled Ethiopian handicrafts. However, since there are no binding agreements between Belgium and Ethiopia customs authorities could not seize it.
The Ethiopian embassy in Brussels engaged a lawyer who advised against legal proceedings since it would be difficult to prove bad faith on the part of the collector and suggested to try to convince him to return it. A representative of the Embassy approached the collector, who agreed to return it if he got his money back.
The Ethiopian authorities agreed to pay for its return and the cross was flown back by the Ambassador in 1999 (though other sources wrongly claimed 2001) with crowds cheering. The Belgian Ambassador invited Ethiopian experts from the Ministry of Culture and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to inspect the Cross and it was compared with photographs and authenticated.
The cross was handed over ceremoniously in the presence of the Ethiopian Patriarch, with the Ethiopian Minister of Culture signing for the receipt. The cross was then flown back to Lalibela and a ceremony held in the presence of a representative from the Belgian Embassy.
Since neither Belgium nor Ethiopia have signed the 1995 UNIDROIT convention on stolen or illegally exported cultural objects, the collector was not punished and got his money back, while the priest and dealers received multiyear sentences.
Number of Objects
1
Object Type
Religious Work – crucifixes, shrine objects, icons, religious texts
Culture
Orthodox Ethiopian Christianity
Private Collector
An anonymous private collector in Brussels
Receiving Country
Ethiopia
Sources
Jos Van Beurden "A holy cross and the necessity for international conventions" in Culture without Context, the Newsletter of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre, issue 9, Autumn 2001, pp.30-31.
https://web.archive.org/web/20120212184949/http://www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/projects/iarc/culturewithoutcontext/issue9/vanbeurden.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20120212184949/http://www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/projects/iarc/culturewithoutcontext/issue9/vanbeurden.htm
Jos van Beurden "Inconvenient Heritage: colonial collections, and restitution in the Netherlands and Belgium", Amsterdam University Press. 2012, A Magic Cross at Brussels Airport pp. 23-24.
Ethiopia's Stolen Gold Cross Returned From Belgium
https://allafrica.com/stories/199905130060.html
https://allafrica.com/stories/199905130060.html
MOLA Contributor(s)
Alula Pankhurst
Peer Reviewed By
Jason Felch
Citation
“Lalibela Cross,” Museum of Looted Antiquities, accessed September 15, 2024, https://mola.omeka.net/items/show/2246.