How can someone loan you something that already belongs to you? Well, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London tried it with Ethiopia by offering to loan stolen treasures, according to the Guardian.

In 2007, Ethiopia filed a restitution claim for the hundreds of artifacts and manuscripts taken during the 1868 capture of Maqdala that are currently held at British museums, BBC Africa reported. Among the treasures looted is a gold crown and a royal wedding dress. 

“The speediest way, if Ethiopia wanted to have these items on display, is a long-term loan … that would be the easiest way to manage it,” said Tristam Hunt, the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

However, Hunt stresses that this solution wouldn't be a "blanket policy" covering all of the museum's colonial treasures. 

“You have to take it item by item and you have to take it history by history. Once you unpick the histories of the collections it becomes a great deal more complicated and challenging,” noted Hunt.

The Ethiopian state and campaigners are onboard with the proposal.  

“This can only be a great improvement on what has happened before,” said Professor Andreas Eshete, a former president of Addis Ababa University and co-founder of Afromet. “There are certain things that are important to Ethiopia that are never on display in the UK, so I think a loan, on a long-term basis, would be a great gift to the country.” Afromet campaigned for the return of the Maqdala treasures.

Eshete also sees it as a way to educate the British public, and suggested that a long-term loan could be the first step in a process that sees the treasures returned to their mother country.

“Once they see they are used in a proper way and in a way that is accessible to not only the Ethiopian public but the international public … people may well change their mind about the value of holding on to them for ever,” noted Eshete.

Some folks took to Twitter side-eyeing the whole exchange, however:

EthiopiaMaqdalaVictoria and Albert Museum