We all owe a vote of thanks to the Museum Assistant in the Africa department of the British Museum, Heidi Cutts, for having convinced her colleagues of the importance and quality of one painting in their collection — the Ethiopian Crucifixion. After a long process of conservation the painting, monumental in its dimensions, height 230 cm, width 180 cm, and in its importance, yoking the passion and crucifixion of Christ to the life of Abuna Saläma, was chosen as the exhibit to celebrate the first Easter of the Ethiopian new millennium.
What is known about the painting is not much: it was probably painted in the mid-l9th century in Northern Ethiopia. In 1893, James Theodore Bent, the English explorer and archaeologist, whilst in Adwa, saw the painting in the church of The Saviour of the World in 1893. It was dirty, discarded, the colours had faded and after some negotiations with the Head Priest, Bent was allowed to purchase it. He deposited the painting in the British Museum in the same year — where it has been ever since, kept in a large glazed wooden frame.
