French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noel Barrot has said the government initiated the return of 3,500 archaeological artefacts to Ethiopia, decades after they were taken for research.
Barrot made this disclosure during a ceremony at Ethiopia’s National Museum in Addis Ababa on Saturday conducted the handing over.
The Minister handed over three prehistoric tools comprising two bifaces and a stone cutter to Ethiopia’s Tourism Minister Selamawit Kassa.
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The artefacts, excavated from the Melka Kunture site near Addis Ababa, date back 1 to 2 million years and were studied under a long-standing Franco-Ethiopian archaeology agreement.
Stored at the French embassy, the full collection will be delivered to the Ethiopian Heritage Directorate by Tuesday.
French officials clarified the transfer is a handover, not restitution, as the items were never part of France’s public collections.
