On Thursday, Asantehene will receive the first shipment of 1874 plundered items from Britain.

On Thursday, February 8, a United Airlines flight arrived in Ghana carrying the first batch of seven objects looted during the 1874 Anglo-Asante War. These will be delivered to the Asantehene, Osei Tutu II, permanently.

This will take place at Dwaberem, Manhyia Palace, during the durbar commemorating the war's 150th anniversary.
Three people make up the delegation, which is headed by Dr. Silvia Forni, Director of the Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles, where the objects have been housed for almost 60 years. The other members of the delegation are Dr. Erica Jones, Curator of the Africa Department, Director of Registration and Collections, and Professor Kwesi Ampene, Chair of the Music Department at Tufts University, who is an external affiliate of the museum.

The returning items were purchased by the Museum in 1965 from one of the largest foundations in the world, the Welcome Trust, which oversees the Welcome Collection, a museum and library in Britain named in honor of Sir Henry Welcome, a British-American millionaire and one of the greatest art collectors in history.
The Museum and the Manhyia Palace have been in talks for a few years; last year, Dr. Erica Jones, the senior curator for Africa, visited and had a meeting with the Asantehene.In December, the artifacts' CITIES PERMIT was granted permission to depart California, opening the door for their eventual return.

Historian Ivor Agyeman-Duah affirmed this development and clarified that, in part, the legislation that prohibited “that has changed at the University which means all looted items could be sent back to their original owners” is the reason they are being permanently returned.
A brand-new model of cross-cultural collaboration is being developed.

According to Mr. Agyeman-Duah, it will center on the Fowler Museum, the University of California (UCLA), the College of Art and Built Environment at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and the Manhyia Palace Museum, as intended by the Asantehene, who also serves as the university's chancellor.
The seven objects that are being returned date back to the 1840s, before Asantehene Kofi Karkari. They consist of an ornate chair made of wood, brass, leather, and iron; ten sizable beads worn as an anklet or bracelet; a string of beads shaped like seeds or insects; gold, glass, and silver; an ornament for a royal stool; and a royal necklace.