Posted on: October 23, 2024 by Alexander Herman
In What have we here? the artist Hew Locke has taken a flashlight to the British Museum’s collection; he has also taken a chisel to its somewhat staid reputation. The artist now occupies the central exhibition space at the museum, just behind the newly reopened library with its grand Victorian dome. Locke had been given […]
Posted on: February 9, 2018 by Alexander Herman
The story begins 150 years ago. In 1868, deep in the deserts of east Africa, a British expedition led by General Robert Napier, was attacking the capital of the Abyssinian Empire, Maqdala, ruled over by King Tewodros. The British were looking to teach Tewodros a lesson for having imprisoned a number of British envoys and […]
Posted on: September 7, 2015 by Alexander Herman
There was a story this morning in the Guardian which once again brought to light the requests by Ethiopia for the return of the remains of one of the country’s royal princes, Prince Alemayehu, currently buried at Windsor Castle near London. The young prince had been brought to England in 1868 following the destruction of the Abyssinian fortress town of Magdala at […]