A precious tablet looted by the British forces at the battle of Maqdala in Ethiopia in 1868 was returned on Tuesday during a church service in London. 

The sacred tablets are known as tabots and systematically represent the Ark of the Covenant for the Ethiopian church.

The private restitution of a tabot will further exert pressure on the British Museum, which owns 11 of them.

Ethiopian Christians believe that tabots should not be viewed by anyone other than their clergy, therefore the Museum keeps them in a basement unable to be examined.

The private tabot was returned to the church of St Mary of Debre Tsion in Battersea, southwest London, which was purchased by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in 2010.

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Roughly 1500 believers attended to witness the return of the tabot, which was wrapped and gently paraded in the cathedral by a senior cleric. The tabot is expected to make its way back to Ethiopia soon.

Jacopo Gnisci, a University College London expert in Global South art with a specific interest in Ethiopia, recently discovered the tabot for sale online and purchased the tablet after he failed to persuade the seller to return it to Ethiopia.

Although he thought he could return the item quietly, he later decided it would be best to encourage other holders of tabots to return them as well if he did so publicly. 

The British Museum has the greatest collection of tabots in the UK. According to the Art Newspaper, the tabots are individually wrapped in fabric and set on a purple velvet-covered shelf in a basement.

A spokesperson from the Museum expressed that its “long-term ambition is to lend the objects to an Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Great Britain where they can be cared for by the clergy within their traditions."

However, these debates have been going on for some years with little progress.