Two British museums are returning gold and silver artifacts to Ghana under a long-term loan arrangement — 150 years after the items were looted from the Asante people during Britain’s colonial battles in West Africa.
The British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, together with the Manhyia Palace Museum in Ghana, on Thursday announced the “important cultural’’ collaboration, which sidesteps U.K. laws that prohibit the return of cultural treasures to their countries of origin. Those laws have been used to prevent the British Museum from returning the Parthenon Marbles, also known as the Elgin Marbles, to Greece.
Some 17 items in total are involved in the loan arrangement, including 13 pieces of Asante royal regalia purchased by the V&A at auction in 1874. The items were acquired by the museums after they were looted by British troops during the Anglo-Asante wars of 1873-74 and 1895-96.
The article is confusing, but it seems the British Museum (et al) is returning ownership of the artifacts back to Ghana, but they will remain in the museum on loan from Ghana due to a shitty UK law which forbids the museum from actually physically returning them. So now they legally belong to Ghana, who has agreed to continue to display them in the British Museum on on loan status.
It’s a step in the right direction, and it’s currently as much as UK law allows. If/when that law is changed or repealed, Ghana will be free to take them back without any further hindrance.