What: A buffalo hide shield, returned to Ethiopia by a Scottish academic in May, 2004

Where: The Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa

Professor Fiona Wilson returned this shield that her family had owned in Scotland since the late 19th century.

“Throughout my childhood the shield was hanging in the dining room of my parents’ house,” Fiona Wilson said at the ceremony when she handed over the shield to the Institute of Ethiopian Studies of the Addis Ababa University.

Wilson said her grandfather bought the buffalo-skin decorated in silver in the 1890s from a dealer and everyone believed it was Scottish.

“I discovered that I had become without realising it, the keeper of a small part of Ethiopia’s historical heritage and national treasure and decided to return it”, she added.

Quotes from Reuters report 31 May 04