US Museum returns royal objects to Asante Kingdom (PHOTOS)

Seven royal artefacts, including a necklace, an ornamental chair, and an elephant tail whisk, have been permanently and voluntarily returned to the Asante kingdom by the Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

In a statement, the museum said the artefacts were handed over to a representative of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II on February 5, 2024, marking the 150th anniversary of the 1874 sacking of the Asante city of Kumasi by British colonial troops, during which four of the returned objects were looted.

The other three items were part of an indemnity payment made by the Asante kingdom to the British after the 1874 Treaty of Fomena.

The Fowler Museum, dedicated to global arts and cultures, facilitated the return, which includes an elephant tail whisk, two royal stool ornaments, a gorget (royal necklace) or stool ornament, two strands of beads used as bracelets or anklets, and an ornamental chair known as an asipim.

These items, donated to the Fowler by the Wellcome Trust in 1965, have been part of the museum's collections.

The event, led by Silvia Forni, the Shirley and Ralph Shapiro Director of the Fowler Museum, marks the institution's first international return. The Fowler Museum has imposed no conditions on the returned objects, leaving it to their stewards to decide whether they will be installed in a museum, placed in the palace treasury, or used in public celebrations. The items, once functional objects, may return to that role in ceremonial settings.

Before their return, the objects were 3D-scanned, and replicas have been commissioned by Ghanaian artists with permission from the Asante royal palace.

The Fowler Museum, which recently celebrated its 60th anniversary, has been a leader in repatriation to Native American tribal communities, returning nearly its entire collection of Native remains and archaeological artefacts to tribes in California, Arizona, Hawaii, and Utah.

The contemporary replicas will be included in the Fowler's collections and exhibitions with credit to the contemporary artists.