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US museum returns Ghana’s first batch of looted gold regalia

Representatives of museum handed them over to Asante king, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, in the city of Kumasi Thursday

By Reuters
February 10, 2024
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Ghana’s Asante king, receives artefacts returned by the Fowler Museum of UCLA (University of California Los Angeles) to the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi, Ghana, on February 8, 2024. — AFP
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Ghana’s Asante king, receives artefacts returned by the Fowler Museum of UCLA (University of California Los Angeles) to the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi, Ghana, on February 8, 2024. — AFP

ACCRA: A US museum has returned a batch of royal regalia to Ghana that was looted by British colonial soldiers 150 years ago, marking the first major return of stolen artefacts to the West African nation.

The Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) said the items, all royal objects from the Asante kingdom, were purchased by an American collector and donated to the museum after his death.

Representatives of the museum handed them over to the Asante king, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, in the city of Kumasi on Thursday.The move comes amid growing demand for the repatriation of priceless objects appropriated in colonial times. Nigeria and Ethiopia are among a number of countries seeking repatriation.

However, some museums say they are banned by law from permanently returning contested items in their collections.London’s British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum said last month that they would loan 32 objects taken during the Anglo-Asante wars to the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi.