Ghana’s culture ministry met with UNESCO this week to plan storage and conservation capacity for incoming artefacts, days after the Netherlands and Germany pledged to return roughly 2,000 looted items.
Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts Minister Abla Dzifa Gomashie held the talks with Lidia Brito, Assistant Director General for Natural Sciences at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). The meeting followed the Accra Next Steps Conference on Reparatory Justice, where Dutch officials presented President John Dramani Mahama with a catalogue of the 2,000 artefacts and Germany signalled it would return items from the Bono and Kpando traditional areas.
Gomashie told Brito that professionals at the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB) were undergoing capacity building, and that the ministry was planning upgrades to the facilities needed to store, conserve and display artefacts as they arrive. She said international partnerships remained central to protecting the country’s heritage and ensuring returned items are preserved for future generations.
Brito, whose UNESCO portfolio covers natural sciences rather than culture, praised Ghana for pushing restitution onto the global agenda and said the organisation stood ready to offer technical assistance, training programmes and expert guidance to strengthen Ghana’s conservation institutions.
The capacity question sits behind a National Focal Team that Gomashie set up last July to identify, document and negotiate the return of looted treasures. Archaeologist Kodzo Gavua chairs the team of ten, which also draws on legal officers from the Attorney General’s Department and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
When she launched the team last year, Gomashie put the mission simply: “We do not seek vengeance, we seek justice.”
With thousands of items due in the next phase of returns, the test facing Gomashie’s ministry is less about winning pledges, which have come steadily since 2024, than about having display cases, conservation labs and trained staff ready before those pledges become physical shipments.
