South Africa and Britain have returned to a Ghanaian conventional king over 130 gold and bronze artefacts taken between the 1870s and the early twentieth century, his palace introduced.
Asante king Otumfuo Osei Tutu II obtained the artefacts on the Manhyia Palace Museum within the Asante capital Kumasi on Sunday, a royal assertion stated.
Royal regalia
The gadgets included royal regalia, drums and ceremonial gold weights and depict governance techniques, religious beliefs and the function of gold in Asante society.
Their return comes as strain mounts on Western museums and establishments to deal with the restitution of African artefacts plundered by colonial powers corresponding to Britain, France, Germany and Belgium.
On the ceremony, the Asante king thanked AngloGold Ashanti, a South African mining firm, for returning a number of gadgets bought on the open market. The mining large returned some artefacts to Ghana in 2024.
The newest repatriation included 110 artefacts from the Barbier-Muller Museum assortment in Geneva, assembled by collector Josef Muller in 1904.
Twenty-five different gadgets had been donated by British artwork historian Hermione Waterfield, who established the Tribal Artwork Division at Christie’s in 1971.
Wood drum
Based on artwork historian and Manhyia Palace Museum director, Ivor Agyeman-Duah, Waterfield’s presents included a picket drum believed to have been seized through the 1900 siege of Kumasi by British forces.
In 2024, the Manhyia Palace Museum obtained 67 restituted or loaned cultural objects from establishments together with London’s British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles.
By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse
