Some of the artifacts that has been returned to the Asantehene
About 130 more gold and bronze art pieces, created in Kumasi and other parts of Asante dating back to the 1870s, have been returned to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.
The artworks were returned by Britain and South Africa and sent to the Manhyia Palace Museum, including royal regalia, drums, and ceremonial gold weights.
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Dating between 45 and 160 years old, the artifacts depict governance systems, spiritual beliefs, and the significance of gold in Asanteman (Ashanti Kingdom).
In a post shared by the Manhyia Palace Museum on November 10, 2025, it stated that the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, expressed his appreciation and gratitude upon receiving the items from a delegation of AngloGold Ashanti, led by its Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer, Stuart Bailey, during the presentation.
The 110 pieces brings their restituted objects in Kumasi to 140 from the original collection of the Barbier-Muller Museum in Geneva through its founding collector, Josef Muller from 1904.
The other 25 separate objects are from one of Britain’s art historians and curators, the 86-year Hermione Waterfield.
She had joined the famous art auction house, Christie’s in London in 1961 and in 1971 established the Tribal Art Department.
The donation made by Waterfield according to the Historian and Director of the Manhyia Palace Museum, Ivor Agyeman-Duah, include a 46-inch wooden fontomfrom drum that were part of the loot from the Palace by the British Colonial Officer, Sir Cecil Hamilton Armitage.
Sir Armitage led the advance force in the siege of Kumasi in 1900 or what became the Yaa Asantewaa War and later became British Colonial Governor of The Gambia.
Waterfield inherited these drums and owned fourteen other gold weights purchased between 1967 and 1973 including from Christie’s auction.
Other artifacts are the famous brass self-portrait of Timonthy Garrand on his motorbike in Kumasi by Yaw Amankwa in 1980.
Agyeman-Duah who last October signed the deaccession papers with Waterfield in London, says among other great works that will be on display at the palace museum will include those of Ghanaian and African masters, Ablade Glover, El Anatsui, Ato Delaquis, Nee-Owoo, Anthony Kwame Akoto, Vincent Koffi and Edwin Kwasi Bodjawah.
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Agyeman-Duah explained that the authority on the returned objects from South Africa “and indeed of metal or goldsmith arts in West African was the late British art historian and archaeologist, Timonthy Garrand who lived for a time in Kumasi and Accra and also Bouake in the Ivory Coast and together with the Octogenarian Waterfield, have helped shaped our understanding not just of gold and bronze collecting but the heritage of their manufacturing processes.”
MAG/MA
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