The first batch of seven objects looted in the third Anglo-Asante War of 1874 has arrived in Ghana on board a United Airlines flight and will be permanently presented to the Asantehene Osei Tutu II on Thursday, February 8.
This will be at the commencement durbar marking the commemoration of the 150 years of the War at Dwaberem, Manhyia Palace.
A delegation of three led by the Director of the Fowler Museum of the University of California, Los Angeles (where the objects have been for nearly 60 years) Dr Silvia Forni includes the Director of Registration and Collections, Dr Rachel Raynor, the Curator of Africa Department, Dr Erica Jones and an external affiliate to the Museum and Chair of the Music Department at the Tufts University, Professor Kwesi Ampene.
The returning objects were acquired in 1965 by the Museum from one of the major foundations of the world, the Wellcome Trust which runs the Wellcome Collection of a museum and library in Britain and is set in memory of one of the British-American leading global art collectors and millionaires of his time, Sir Henry Wellcome.
Discussions between the Museum and the Manhyia Palace had been on for a couple of years with their senior Africa curator, Dr. Erica Jones visiting and meeting with the Asantehene last year.
Permission for the objects to leave California under their CITIES PERMIT was approved in December paving the way for their return.
Historian Ivor Agyeman-Duah confirmed this development and explained that they are permanently being returned partly because the legislation that prevented “that has changed at the University which means all looted items could be sent back to their original owners.”
There is a new form of cultural cooperation under design.
Mr Agyeman-Duah explained that it will revolve around the Fowler Museum and the University of California (UCLA), the Manhyia Palace Museum and the College of Art and Built Environment, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology as envisaged by the Asantehene who is also the Chancellor of the University.
The seven returning objects go back to the period before Asantehene Kofi Karkari in the 1840s and include an ornamental chair of wood, brass, leather and iron; ten large beads worn as bracelet or anklet; strand of seed or bug-shaped beads; gold of an elephant hair, glass and silver; a royal stool ornament; a royal necklace and a royal stool ornament.
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