Ethiopian war hero general Ras Desta Damtew's family is fighting to recover his medal emerged at an online auction after decades when it was stolen, an art newspaper said in a report.
"It’s literally a medal taken from the dead body of our grandfather," grandson Amaha Kassa told the art newspaper about the family relic with an estimated value of €60,000 – 90,000 ($63,200 – 94,800) that is listed at an online auction, offered by La Galerie Numismatique company for the minimum asking price of €48,000 ($50,500).
The family, represented by a lawyer of Art Recovery International, a company providing stolen and looted art recovery services, considers the medal to be looted war trophies and objects to its sale for profit, and the family's goal is to secure the relic for an Ethiopian museum, the report noted.
Despite contacting the auction house, La Galerie Numismatique, and the Ethiopian Heritage Authority intervening, the auction failed to meet its reserve price. The auction house offered to sell the medal back to the family for a significantly increased price, a demand the family and their legal representative deemed unacceptable.
"These are outrageous, insensitive demands for stolen property with colonial-era provenance," the newspaper quoted the lawyer of Art Recovery International as saying, while commenting on the auction's requests.