V&A moves to return looted treasures to Ghana

The Victoria and Albert Museum is in talks over returning looted artefacts to Ghana.

Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A, has said he is “optimistic” that a new partnership can create a pathway for Asante artefacts “to be on display in Ghana in the coming years”, after visiting the country in February to hold discussions on the issue.

The items, including 13 pieces of lgold court regalia, including a decorated flower-shaped pectoral 'soul' disc and a pear-shaped pendant, were seized during a punitive raid in 1874.

Current restrictions incorporated in the 1983 National Heritage Act mean that the V&A is not able to 'deaccession' artefacts. Hunt hopes the 40th anniversary of the legislation next year can offer an opportunity to debate whether this needs to change.

In the interim, the museum can only offer the artefacts on long-term loan. 

In the V&A’s latest annual review, he wrote that he visited Ghana “to begin conversations about a renewable cultural partnership centred around the V&A collection of Asante court regalia, which entered the collection following the looting of Kumasi in 1874”.