The Asante king of Ghana has requested that the British Museum return gold artifacts from its collection to his country.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene, recently had a discussion with Dr. Hartwig Fischer, the museum’s director.
Works taken from the Asante palace in Kumasi during the 1874 war with the British are included in the museum’s collection.
According to the BBC, the British Museum is “exploring the possibility of lending items” to Ghana at the request of Asante King.
After attending King Charles’ coronation last week, the president of Ghana met Dr. Fischer.
Recent years have seen an increase in pressure on the British Museum to return items to their countries of origin.
The most well-known instance in this contentious discussion is Greece’s demands for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures, which are still frequently referred to as the Elgin Marbles.
The British government later purchased them and housed them in the British Museum after they were removed by the diplomat and soldier Lord Elgin in the 19th century.
Restitution concerns are more prevalent in nations that have gone through colonial conflict.
Ethiopia demands the return of ceremonial crosses, weapons, jewelry, sacred altar tablets, and other items that were taken from Maqdala in the country’s north during a British military operation in 1868 by the British Museum.
Additionally, the museum has been formally requested to return 900 Benin Bronzes by the Nigerian government.
From the 16th century onward, specialized guilds working for the royal court of the Oba, or King, in Benin City, produced these exquisite bronze and brass sculptures.
When the British took control of the city in 1897, many people were forcibly removed.
Ghana’s government has set up a Restitution Committee to look at the return of items taken from the Asante Palace which are now in collections around the world.
Nana Oforiatta Ayim, who sits on that committee, told the BBC: “These objects are largely sacred ones and their return is about more than just restitution. It is also about reparation and repair, for the places they were taken from, but also those who did the taking.”
She added that they are looking for a new relationship “not based on exploitation or oppression, but on equity and mutual respect”.
Last Thursday’s discussions at the British Museum are the first-ever meeting between the Asantehene and the museum’s director Dr. Fischer.
According to the British Museum, the Asantehene requested a loan of items of regalia belonging to his forbears.
In the 19th Century, the Asante state was one of the few African states that offered serious resistance to European colonizers.
Its independence ended in 1874 when a British expeditionary force marched into Kumasi in retaliation for an Asante attack two years earlier.
A spokeswoman for the British Museum told the BBC: “Our director and deputy director were pleased to welcome His Royal Majesty Osei Tutu II (the Asantehene) to the museum during his visit to the UK for the Coronation of King Charles III.”
She added that the British Museum “is exploring the possibility of lending items from the collection to mark the 150th anniversary of the end of the third Anglo-Asante war, as well as to support celebrations for the Asantehene’s Silver Jubilee next year”.
For some Ghanaians however, loans can never be a long-term solution.
Oforiatta Ayim, who is also a special adviser to Ghana’s Culture Minister, said: “Loans can be a first step in that they can open up dialogue in the kind of institutions and structures that are slow to change.
“At the end of the day, objects like the ones taken in 1874 were taken under horrifically violent circumstances… There needs to be honesty, accountability, and action”.
She added that the objects’ homes are “undeniably the places they were taken from” although could then be lent back to British institutions in the future.
London’s Horniman Museum returned 72 items in its collection to Nigerian ownership last year.
At the time, Nick Merriman, the Horniman Museum director, told the BBC there was a “moral argument” to return them. He said: “We’re seeing a tipping point around not just restitution and repatriation, but museums acknowledging their colonial history”.
But some of the UK’s most renowned institutions, including the British Museum, are prevented by law from making a decision of this kind.
The British Museum Act of 1963 bans the museum from the “disposal of objects” except in very specific circumstances.
It is however free to loan items if it believes the items won’t be damaged.
Also read: British forces return two colonial-era looted Benin bronzes to Nigeria
