Loot and Plunder
@andrewheavens
By Andrew Heavens, author of "The Prince and the Plunder", about how Britain took piles of loot and one small boy from Ethiopia. Interested in all things pillaged, and in Bob, and in skiffle. Champion of Wiggle Wiggle on Pod Dylan.
Eritrean plunder. Or, possibly, forged Eritrean plunder, made to be bought by suckers like me. Fragment Ancient Adulis Coast of Abyssinia 1868
The prettiest plundering scene I ever did see. "Tapestry with a plundering scene, Flanders, late 16th century. In a setting of valleys and woods, a scene of plunder under the watchful eye of Spanish soldiers." Yours for €2,000 - €3,000 www.bonhams.com/auction/3180...
'Battersea Rain Dance' by Chris Barber & His Band Featuring yell by Paul McCartney (copyright Apple Publishing) #realtreasure
Game of Thrones loot for sale. Gold bar used in the Season 7 episode "The Spoils of War", yours for c £400. See how it glisters - www.ewbankauctions.co.uk/280526MP-lot...
🧵10/10 Congratulations and kudos to Eyob Derillo @eyobderillo1.bsky.social, the expert in everything that matters who led the research into the museum's Maqdala collection. Also to the museum, Lancaster University and the delegation from Ethiopia including @alulapankhurst.bsky.social.
🧵9/10 Perhaps at least one part of the popular image of Tewodros is rooted in reality. The fact that a British museum had a lock of the emperor’s hair is a reminder of his defeat in one battle. The hair itself is a reminder of a presence and status that endures.
🧵8/10 Could the return of the Lancaster lock be a chance to roll back that scepticism a bit? I am told the lock is more substantial than the clippings returned by the National Army Museum in 2019 and might show signs of having been in something like a braid …
🧵7/10 Some have suspected these images are propaganda, too heroic to be true. They are set against two portraits taken from life - or death - that show a slighter, diminished figure. One with short, ragged hair - an image of him after the soldiers had taken their souvenirs ...
🧵6/10 There is a very strong popular idea of what Tewodros looked like – repeated today in murals and T-shirts and computer game graphics – a powerful figure with totemic long hair ...
🧵5/10 The hair in particular is tied in to how we see Tewodros, a man who was a towering figure in the history of Ethiopia and the build-up to Europe’s imperial scramble across Africa and beyond ...
🧵4/10 Those souvenirs are likely to have included the hair and blood-stained cloth that were held in Lancaster and are now back in Ethiopia. More of his hair ended up in London's National Army Museum and was returned in 2019 ... www.nam.ac.uk/press/nation...
🧵3/10 Tewodros, who carried out his own atrocities, took his own life rather than be captured. As he lay dead, soldiers - "vultures, dressed like Englishmen" said one British observer - descended on his corpse and cut off his clothes and hair for souvenirs ...
🧵2/10 The remains are a jolting reminder of the violence at the heart of Britain’s 1868 charge into Ethiopia to free Europeans held by Tewodros after a series of diplomatic fiascos. The troops, much better armed, killed hundreds of Ethiopians in a decisive battle near Maqdala…
🧵1/10 Lancaster’s Kings Own Royal Regiment Museum has returned a lock of hair taken from the body of Ethiopia’s Emperor Tewodros, and a piece of cloth stained with his blood. A big deal. But the significance goes beyond an act of restitution ... www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/heritage-and...
"As Nazi Troops retreated from the town of Darmstadt, Germany, civilians who decided to stay behind, ran wild in an orgy of looting." 3 April 1945 www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auctio...
This is not loot..."kein Kriegsraubgut"! An icon acquired at the Battle of Smolensk as the Nazis charged into Russia. "This was acquired for a fee and is therefore not war loot," reads the label. So that's alright then. Now you can acquire it for a fee. www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auctio...
One of the repeated stories about Britain's 1868 invasion of Ethiopia is that Emperor Tewodros took his own life with a pistol given to him by Queen Victoria. But, as @alulapankhurst.bsky.social says, there were other guns around ... x.com/alulapan/sta...
More catch-up on Ethiopian plunder. The hairpin of Ethiopia's Queen Terunesh returns home, with the help of the Royal Ethiopian Trust and plunder-watchers including @alulapankhurst.bsky.social x.com/alulapan/sta...
Top five things to take the edge off #BlueMonday 1-The Forkiverse - theforkiverse.com 2-The A Book - A Place podcast by Robin Pomeroy - robinpomeroy.wordpress.com @robinpomeroy.bsky.social 3-The ill-advised podcast with Bill Nighy 4-The reborn Observer 5-The Iron Maiden scene in 28 Years Later
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...
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
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.
You've heard of the Prince and the Plunder. Meet the Love Guru and the Loot. Lytchett Minster Parish Church, Sunday
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...
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...