1

The Royal Artillery is facing criticism after it emerged they are refusing public access to an “extraordinary object” looted by the British army in the 19th century from the Asante people in modern-day Ghana.

The glistening golden ram’s head would seemingly be worthy of any museum, but it remains hidden within the regiment’s mess at Larkhill in Wiltshire.

The artefact is among treasures pillaged by the British army from the sprawling old royal palace in the Asante state capital, Kumasi, in 1874, before soldiers set fire to the city and blew up the palace. The British returned in 1896 and looted the rebuilt palace. Their commander later recalled: “I had shown the power of England.”

The spoils of the Anglo-Asante wars were sold and dispersed among private and public collections, including to the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum, which, in 2024, together made the historic decision to return 32 pieces of gold court regalia to the Manhyia Palace Museum in Ghana – although only on long-term loan.

no comments (yet)
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
there doesn't seem to be anything here
this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2026
1 points (100.0% liked)

World News

54130 readers
312 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS