Snapshot 4:Fri, Apr 12, 2024 5:54:30 PM GMT last edited by Haakan

UK Returns Looted Artefacts to Ghana

Published APR 12 2024

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Image credit: Claire H. via Wikimedia Commons

The Spin

By loaning the gold works, the UK isacknowledges acknowledging the artifacts' spiritual and cultural significance to the Asante people. Although the objects form only a part of the Asante collections, the loans include most of the key works to right some of the wrongs of Britain's colonial past. Legal restrictions make a permanent transfer impossible, and with the deal signed, the museums' legal ownership of the objects has been recognized, allowing for the past to be finally put to rest.

The Artnewspaper

The loan of the artifacts with their spiritual and historical significance is to be welcomed but is no more than a first step. Rather, it is yet another humiliation that the objects stolen during colonial times will only be loaned and not returned permanently. Furthermore, the deal only provides for the temporary return of a small portion of the hundreds of artifacts held in the UK. The wounds of the past will only really begin to heal once the Ansante cultural heritage returns to Ghana for good.

Africanews