Loot and Plunder

British Museum's looted ewer set for return to Ghana on long-term loan The 14th-century, English-made Asante Ewer was seized from the royal palace in Kumasi in 1896 and has been held by the British Museum ever since

"The British Museum now acknowledges that the Asante Ewer was loot, a term the institution would not have used until recent years. In an 'object in focus' book, just published, the Asante Ewer is acknowledged as 'looted'."

Again, Go Ghana

www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/12/02/b...

Here's a close-up of the note on the box. And, if you want even stronger provenance, here's a link to anopther hairpin in her jewellery collection in London's V&A collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O108395...

A beautiful hairpin that belonged to Prince Alemayehu's mother - Empress Tiruwork - is going back to Ethiopia c. 160 years after it was taken by the British military doctor who treated her last illness. Congrats to all involved @alulapankhurst.bsky.social royalethiopiantrust.org/the-return-o...

Also on that year's EP 'Afro McJazz', out around the same time as 'Blue McJazz'

Stepping back into socials with some real treasure - without a doubt, the greatest album cover ever.

Not the greatest album ever, but Sandy Brown's 1957 'McJazz' is notable for including a Scot's best wishes to newly indepedent Africa. With opening track 'Go Ghana' www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ddd...

A copy of the book 'The Prince and the Plunder', about Ethiopia's Prince Alemayehu, next to a statue of his father's great cannon in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 'The Prince and the Plunder' is by the owner of this account, Andrew Heavens

Father and son!

Thank you so much to Mariamawit Y Yeshak for taking Alemayehu, via her copy of 'The Prince and the Plunder', to the statue of his father's great cannon in Addis Ababa. Really moving.

Please send in other sightings. #friendsofalemayehu #theprinceandtheplunder #Ethiopia

And while we're at it, here begins the campaign to Return the Benin Brasses...

YouTube video by Nyamakop Relooted Announcement Trailer

"We are going to do whatever it takes to take back Africa's belongings. And we're going to do it together!"

Relooted, coming soon from South African game developer Nyamakop @nyamakop youtu.be/KgPxPfXb734

Inside America’s booming immigration detention industry The enormous US deportation programme is enriching companies as detainees complain of poor treatment

"About 85 per cent of people in immigration custody are held in places run for profit, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), an archive of government data and reports. "https://ig.ft.com/us-immigration-detention/

Detail from the southern door at St. Nicholas Church, Barfrestone

Detail from the southern door at St. Nicholas Church, Barfrestone

Detail from the southern door at St. Nicholas Church, Barfrestone. A rabbit riding a goat?

Detail from the southern door at St. Nicholas Church, Barfrestone

We don't need plunder. We have enough treasure of our own.

The southern door at St. Nicholas Church, Barfrestone (pop. 60) near Dover - s645975992.websitehome.co.uk

"One of the best late Norman churches in Kent," said John Betjeman.

Grave of Sir Francis Younghusband, Lytchett Minster Parish Church, Sunday

You've heard of the Prince and the Plunder.

Meet the Love Guru and the Loot.

Lytchett Minster Parish Church, Sunday

Screenshot of Guardian article: "Liz Truss and hard-right group accused of scaremongering over Parthenon marbles. Ex-PM among those saying they will take legal action over ‘covert’ plans to return sculptures to Greece,"

Here starts the campaign for Britain to repatriate the plundered acronym "PAC", in fact the whole concept. It belongs in the US of A.

"Great British Pac calls for an end to any negotiations to return the Parthenon sculptures or risk legal challenges."
www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Cover of "The Prince and the Plunder" by Andrew Heavens

Thrilled to report that Barbara Blake Hannah - yes *that* Barbara Blake Hannah - has reviewed "The Prince and the Plunder".

"So vivid and descriptive that at times I felt I was watching a documentary film, not just reading a book." Thank you! www.theprinceandtheplunder.com/2025/07/02/r...

Ethiopia's 1983-85 famine: the musical.

Sacred to the memory would be the way to start it, I guess.

And on the dates, Alemayehu died on November 14, 1879 and was buried in Windsor on November 21.

His generally acepted birthday is April 23, 1861 - rather suspiciously, St George's Day. But I have never seen the source for that.

Latin scholars, please help.

I am trying to translate this memorial for Ethiopia's Prince Alemayehu in Rugby School chapel.

How close has Google Translate got me?

Cunning - really? Players or playmates? And are those dates right? They don't match the record.

South London Press closes down after 160 years covering UK capital Independent local newspaper the South London Press has abruptly closed down after 160 years as it goes into insolvency proceedings.

The South London Press, where I did my first work experience, just "abruptly" shut down. pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/r...

The first newspapers to pay me - the @chardandilynews.bsky.social and the @expressandstar.com - are still there, but scaled down.

Brave new future a little less shiny this am

Bow down to him on Saturday / Salute him now his birthday's come #happybirthday #bobdylan

I have never come across that. But it sounds like a beautiful thing to do. An echo of the children's hand prints people keep at the beginning of life.

On death masks. In the small world of Prince Alemayehu Studies, my thing, the search for his mask is one of our holy grails.

It seems weird. But then I look at the locks of babies' hair - even some milk teeth - that my family has kept over ther generations. We are all just a little odd, and always have been.

Signed photograph of Elena of Montenegro, Queen of Italy and Albania, Empress of Ethiopia ... briefly

Yours for up to 200 Swiss francs ($240) www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auctio...

A 1930s anti-fascism poster with 'Abisinia' as the victim.

"Envy and Greed have married, and from this vile marriage is born, like a fruit of rot, the law of the strongest ... or the most envious."

A historical artefact with nothing to teach us today. www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auctio...

i thought you'd like to know
that 'the parrots of the caribbean'
have saved my day

Wild camping won! www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Very excitingly, the V&A has started taking bookings for its Order an Object scheme. You order things from the museum's vast storerooms - and they bring them out to you!

Here are my 5 treasures from Britain's 1868 Abyssinian "expedition". Have a go www.vam.ac.uk/info/order-a...

Should holy relics be put up for sale? The market for sacred artefacts is an ethical minefield Sotheby’s has postponed its sale of gems linked to the remains of the Buddha, in a case that has sparked legal and moral debates

"Do cremated ashes classify as human remains? Should there be international trade in religious relics? What, in the words of the fictive archaeologist Indiana Jones, 'belongs in a museum'?"

And don't get me started on tabots.

www.ft.com/content/489a... via Melanie Gerlis in @financialtimes.com

@righttoroam.bsky.social #dartmoor #freecamping

Darwall and another (Appellants) v Dartmoor National Park Authority (Respondent) - UK Supreme Court Does section 10(1) of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 (the “1985 Act”) confer on the public a right to pitch tents or otherwise make camp overnight on the Dartmoor Commons (“the Commons”)?

A big judgment coming next Wednesday. Will Dartmoor remain the last place where we can camp freely in England? Or will the landowners win? @supremecourt.uk @righttoroam.bsky.social #dartmoor #freecamping supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2...

Robert Francis Prevost has been elected Pope Leo XIV—why does this matter to the worlds of art and heritage? The Chicago-born pontiff—the new spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Catholics and the proprietor in trust of the great art and architecture treasures of the Vatican—has publicly supported his predecessor...

"Leo XIV becomes proprietor in trust of the great art and architectural treasures of Vatican City, and will be looked to as a moral authority ... Under (his predecessor) Francis, the papacy made a number of symbolic gestures around ... cultural restitution." www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/05/08/r...