Spoils of war: Fight to recover Ethiopian prince's gold medal from Swiss auction block

It’s not unusual for memorabilia from Ethiopia to crop up for sale online from time to time, says Amaha Kassa, but the medal being offered on an auctioneer's website “jumped out immediately”. The Imperial Order of the Star of Ethiopia belonged to his grandfather Ras Desta Damtew, an Ethiopian prince and military commander executed in 1937 by the Italians, who had invaded the African nation two years earlier. Ras Desta Damtew was the son-in-law of Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie. The details provided by the auctioneers La Galerie Numismatique make no attempt to hide that the solid gold medal was the property “Ras Desta Damtew, Prince of Ethiopia” and comes from “the estate of an Italian soldier present” at his capture. News of the sale began to spread by text message among Mr Kassa’s “shocked” family, as they learnt for the first time of the medal had been “looted”. “I think our universal reaction was anger at the idea that someone could take something from our grandfather's body or his possessions after he had been executed, and then make a profit from it,” he told The National. “It felt like grave-robbing.” Mr Kassa, 51, and his family now want the medal returned to the Ethiopia to be housed in a museum for its people to see an item that’s part of the country’s national heritage. While current owner remains anonymous, he is appealing to whoever they are “to do the right thing” and give up the medal. “We haven't been able to have direct communication with the seller, so we don't know what their position is,” he said. “But I would say to them that this is an opportunity to set an example of how to be a hero, to be the hero of the story, instead of the villain of the story.” According to auctioneers description, the Imperial Order of the Star of Ethiopia is as 7.8cm wide and weighs 80 grams. It is “an outstandingly rare piece, probably the only one known of this type and quality” that’s “in excellent condition and above all, historically relevant”. The details of exactly how and when Ras (translated as both Prince or Duke) Desta Damtew’s medal was taken from him, and who has owned it before it ended up for sale on the website the Swiss-based auctioneer, remain unclear. The Kassa family have enlisted the help of Chris Marinello , a London and Venice-based US lawyer, in a bid to halt any future sales and restore the medal to Ethiopia. He is working pro-bono for them. Mr Marinello, the chief executive and founder of Art Recovery International, has previously restored artwork looted by the Nazis to their Jewish owners. He told The National that the seizure of the medal was the result of “colonial thievery by the Italians”. He has shared correspondence with auctioneers La Galerie Numismatique in which they assert the medal has been “sold a lot of times at public auction” so “therefore the provenance is clear”. But Mr Kassa said his family rejects that claim and “doesn’t believe that a looter can pass on a good title or that you could launder looted goods through a good faith purchase”. “A series of sales that began with a theft of national heritage doesn't clear the original theft, the original looting.” The auction of the medal has now been halted after failing to meet its reserve price of €45,000, but it remains on the website and Mr Kassa believes it’s time now for the seller to withdraw it from the market completely. “Our position as a family is that we would like to see it donated to the Ethiopian national archives or a place where it could be appreciated by Ethiopians,” he said. Ras Desta Damtew led the Ethiopian army after the country was invaded the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini in 1935, but were defeated in battle by Italian forces a year later. He carried on fighting until 1937 when he was captured by mercenaries working for the Italians and executed. Franklin D Roosevelt, US president at the time, wrote to Ethiopia’s ruler Haile Selassie to express his condolences and praise Ras Desta Damtew’s “brave resistance”. Mr Marinello said the situation with the medal from Ras Desta Damtew compares with his work helping to recover artwork confiscated from their Jewish owners. “How could you look yourself in the mirror and say ‘I bought this in good faith’. I mean the story is even published on the auctioneers' website,” he said. The story of the Ras Desta Damtew and his medal is wrapped up in the extraordinary story of Mr Kassa’s family. His great-grandfather was Haile Selassie, the last Emperor of Ethiopia, who reigned from 1930 to 1974, and was part of a 3,000-year dynasty believe to stretch back to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. His eldest daughter married Ras Desta Damtew and the couple had eight children, one of whom was Mr Kassa’s mother Princess Seble Desta. He also become divine figure in the Rastafari religion whose practitioners regard him as the Second Coming of Jesus and God in human form. Haile Selassie was deposed by a group of left-wing army officers known the Derg. He died in 1975 and while the initial cause was said by the new regime to be illness, it emerged in 1994 that he had been murdered. Princess Seble Desta was held in captivity for 14 years without trial in a filthy prison known locally as Alem Bekagn, or End of the World. Mr Kassa’s father Kassa Wolde Mariam was executed by the Derg , along with 60 other political prisoners. Her five children were given refuge by an American missionary before making an escape from Ethiopia which was partly funded by Bob Marley , the world’s most pre-eminent Rastafarian. Mr Kassa grew up in the United States where he is a lawyer and runs African Communities Together, an NGO, which works with migrants from the continent. He believes that sale of his grandfather’s medal “has become not just a matter of kind of family heritage, but also in some ways of national honour”. “I would say that there's a tide that has turned around questions of looting, both of family heirlooms and national heritage,” he said. “We’ve seen that when it comes to Nazi looted goods, right? So as it should be it’s right that Holocaust victims who had their prized possessions stolen have in some cases, been able to get restitution. “I think it couldn't be more important as we build and rebuild Ethiopia, for people to know the kind of heritage that they're building on.” La Galerie Numismatique have been approached for comment.

Spoils of war: Fight to recover Ethiopian prince's gold medal from Swiss auction block

The descendants of Ras Desta Damtew want the Imperial Order of the Star of Ethiopia to be on display in their homeland