Italy returns relic looted by Mussolini

The funeral stone, or stele, was taken on the orders of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The Italian government first promised to return the obelisk, which was erected in the Circus Maximus in central Rome, in 1947. But Ethiopia was forced to wait a further 60 years before the treasured artefact was finally given back.

"This is the land of the Queen of Sheba and the obelisk belongs here," the Ethiopian president, Girma Wolde-Giogis, said, as he wiped tears of joy from his eyes. "I never thought I would be alive to see its return."

The country’s prime minister, Meles Zenawi, watched as a huge cargo plane landed in the northern Ethiopian town of Axum and workers unloaded the 80-foot piece of carved granite.

"I am very happy and relieved that at last the obelisk is back," Mr Meles said after receiving the 60-ton top piece at the airport shortly after dawn. "I think this will bring about a major change of attitude in those countries that have treasures that do not belong to them."

Politicians, religious leaders and veterans who fought against the brutal five-year Italian occupation of Ethiopia that ended in 1941 stood shoulder to shoulder at Axum airport to receive the monument. Thousands clamoured to touch the three giant grey stones as the trucks carrying them snaked slowly through the ancient town of 60,000 people to a hillock overlooking Axum and the obelisk’s original site.

The monument symbolises the powerful Axumite kingdom, which was established between 200 and 100BC and ruled the entire region that stretched across the Red Sea. When it was removed, the obelisk was in fragments, having been toppled during a 16th-century Muslim rebellion.

Ethiopia hopes to re-erect the three sections of the 180-ton monument in October. But there are concerns over whether the obelisk would collapse if erected on its original site, which archaeologists describe as honeycombed with tombs.

Richard Pankhurst, a historian, said the obelisk was the most important of Ethiopia’s stolen treasures to be returned. "This will open a new era in the restoration of loot from the third world," he said.

Abune Paulos, the head of the 40 million-member Ethiopian Orthodox Church, said: "Justice has been done. This was the right thing for Italy to do."

Italians hope the return of the treasure will draw a line under the occupation of Ethiopia, during which their troops used mustard gas against civilians and killed thousands.

Ethiopia is the only African nation that the European powers failed to colonise - although Italy occupied the country, it was never a colony.