Ghanian Crown Jewels Returned by British Institutions
150 years after after the English looted Manhyia Palace in Ghana, the Kumasi museum, which resides within it, will be granted a permanent loan of their country’s treasures, according to ARTnews. The golden regalia and ceremonial objects were taken in 1874 from the Asante empire during military expeditions and remained on English soil ever since. Expected to reopen in April, the palace museum which has been closed since 2021, will be able to celebrate their reunification with the 32 objects received from the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Des Moines Art Center Set to Destroy Site-Specific Commission by Mary Miss
Mary Miss’s much loved landscape installation, Greenwood Pond: Double Site (1989–96), is scheduled for demolition by the Des Moines Art Center, despite it being a commissioned piece for the museum’s permanent collection, according to The New York Times. After making The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s (TCLF) 2014 Landslide® list—Landslide® is TCLF’s annual list of at-risk landscapes—the work underwent serious repairs, but remained under poor care. Miss had intentionally chosen materials which would endure the ecology, so it was a blow to find that the supposed reason for removal was due to a public safety issue, referencing the “unstable aquatic environment.”