British Museum explores repatriation of more contested artefacts
The British Museum could repatriate more contested artefacts despite legal restrictions that hamper a permanent deal for the Elgin Marbles.
Treasures were returned last week to Otomfuo Osei Tutu II, the king of the Asante in Ghana, in a joint project with the V&A, which marked the first time high-profile British institutions had sent artefacts back to Africa.
Bosses at the British Museum have said that more repatriation deals could be done and legal constraints, which have frustrated any arrangement for the Elgin Marbles, could be worked around.
The British Museum Act 1963 currently bars the institution from handing over legal ownership of its artefacts, a red line for Greece that will not accept a loan deal.
Representatives of the museum believe that this constraint is not the “be all and end all” and more objects could be legally returned if nations involved in repatriation rows are willing to accept favourable loan deals.
Prof Chris Gosden, a British Museum trustee, spoke to The Telegraph in the Asante capital of Kumasi, Ghana, where he formally handed over golden items of royal regalia on behalf of the museum.
He said that the landmark deal shows what can be done without fixating on legal ownership and suggested that other campaigners for repatriation could create an arrangement akin to the Asante king’s to ensure “some sort of engagement and movement of objects”.
He added: “The 1963 act is not quite irrelevant but not quite the impediment that it might be seen as being.
“It’s about the relationship and what is possible within the relationship.”
The British Museum has a long-standing relationship with the king or “Asantehene” of the Astane, dating back to a deal with his predecessor in the 1970s. It is hoped that similar relationships could be established.
The Asantehene has accepted the British Museum’s legal ownership of the royal regalia looted in wars of 1874 and 1896 in order to see them returned to Ghana for a three-year period to mark a string of anniversaries.
The British Museum Act ensures the institution cannot give artefacts away permanently but they can go out on loan, so long as the recipient of the treasures signs a contract accepting the museum’s legal ownership, something the Asante king pragmatically accepted.
The Greek government’s position regarding the Elgin Marbles, however, has always been that they were stolen by Lord Elgin in the 19th century and sold to the British Museum.
The country maintains that the marbles are not the legal property of the museum and successive governments have refused to countenance a loan deal that would require accepting the museum’s claim to ownership.
The constraint has also frustrated other attempts at repatriation, including for the Benin Bronzes, but British Museum experts have suggested more artefacts could go overseas within the current legal framework.
Julia Hudson, the curator of African collections at the British Museum, told The Telegraph: “What’s important is that we’ve done something. We haven’t been hampered by those restrictions.
“The Asantehene has been able to see that and be diplomatic in helping us to bring those objects to Ghana for this homecoming to do something is so much more positive than to do nothing and hide behind the act.”
British Museum sources previously said the institution was working to replicate with the Greek authorities the “level of engagement we have with museums in other countries” and “exploring if there is an arrangement that would allow some of the Parthenon sculptures to travel to Greece”.
George Osborne, the chairman for the British Museum, has been pushing for a partnership with Greece that could see the Marbles returned to Athens.
