The acquisitions have not been ostentatious, with a significant portion of them being historic royal portraits, bequests or donations

The Kwer'ata Re'esu was kept in a bank vault in Portugal, where our correspondent examined it and took colour photographs in 1998

As a touring exhibition, African Zion—The Sacred Art Of Ethiopia, opened in the United States in 1993, a scholar of Ethiopian history asked what had become of the country's most important painting of all

Some of the house's 18th-century furniture has been lent back by the Victoria & Albert Museum but other pieces and paintings integral ot its design have left Britain for good