The loot comprises a gold crown, some 400 manuscripts, ten tabots, or altar slabs, etc., currently held mainly at the British Library and Museum and the Royal Library at Winsdor Castle. The changing international perspective on culture raised by Hensher applies to Ethiopia no less than to Greece. Ethiopian manuscripts in Britain were in the past much studied by European scholars, who deserve our praise. Their legacy has, however, been inherited by Ethiopian scholars. Addis Ababa, rather than London, is now indisputably the main center of Ethiopian Studies.
Ethiopian libraries are, moreover, now able to preserve the country's manuscripts.
From the point of view of international law, the looting of Magdala was in no way justified.