ACCRA.- He Museo British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum will return elements as gold and silver artifacts from Ghana’s Asante royal court looted during the colonial era, the museums announced Thursday.
“Gold and silver objects relating to the Asante royal court will go on display in Kumasi later this year, as part of a long-term loan agreed by the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum,” the museums said in a joint statement. .
“It will be the first time in 150 years that many of these objects will be exhibited in Ghana,” they added.
The long-term loan agreement for the pieces comes at a time when museums and international institutions are increasingly willing to return African pieces looted by former colonial powers British, French, German and Belgian.
The agreement
The returned items include a 300-year-old Mponponso sword used in Asante oath ceremonies and a gold peace pipe, among others.
The objects were stolen after the Third Anglo-Assante War in 1874 and include a total of 32 pieces, 15 from the British Museum and 17 from the Victoria and Albert Museum, both in London.
They will be exhibited in Kumasi, seat of the Asante kingdom, at the Manhyia Palace Museum for a maximum of six years, according to the royal palace.
The Parthenon marbles are also exhibited in the British Museum, sculptures taken from this temple at the beginning of the 19th century and which Greece asks the United Kingdom to return.
The issue has been a source of dispute between both countries for decades, as Athens maintains that they were stolen, something that London denies.
FUENTE: AFP
