British Museum Lends Ghana Looted Gold Artifacts—Here’s Why It Won’t Fully Return Them
ForbesFeb 05
UK to Loan Back the Asante's 'Crown Jewels'
Image copyright: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images New via Getty Images
The Facts
The British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) announced that a total of 32 items are being returned to the current Asante monarch Otumfuo Osei Tutu II on a three-year loan deal, following their seizure by British troops in what is now Ghana in the 19th century.
According to a press release, the agreement is the culmination of nine months of negotiations following an official visit by the Asante King, the Asantehene, to London in May 2023. The items will be loaned to the Manhyia Palace Museum and exhibited to mark Tutu II's Silver jubilee, the 150th anniversary of the Anglo-Asante War, and the centenary of Asantehene Prempeh I's return from exile.
The Spin
Narrative A
Any deal between Asante royalty and the UK will have inevitably required the Ghanaian community to accept the legality of the British Museum and V&A's possession of its treasures. With Greece, Nigeria, and Ethiopia amongst those vocally demanding the repatriation of items of cultural significance, there is certainly hope that this agreement may provide a foundation for further deals allowing artifacts to temporarily return to their original homes.
Narrative B
Museums that often cry theft as a consequence of mismanagement and poor security are the very same institutions that hypocritically refuse to return the product of the UK's colonial past back to its rightful owners. Westminster must change the 1963 British Museum Act — the legislation that prohibits the permanent return of objects that the UK should, in reality, be embarrassed to possess. Items looted and stolen as a consequence of a history of conquest and oppression should no longer be arrogantly paraded within British territory.