V&A's 'return' of looted Ghana gold is a new way to tackle Britain's painful past

At 10.30am on Monday 23 February 1874, the prize objects taken by British troops from the royal ­palace in Kumasi were put up for auction in the palaver hall of Cape Castle, on the Gold Coast. "The long centre table was covered as thickly as it could bear with ­jewellery and gold," reported the Daily Telegraph. "On a side table stood the king's plate. Against a broad screen hung swords and ­cartouche belts of leopard skin, and canes of huge silver heads, and ­calabashes bound in gold and silver, and embossed brass pans." Alongside the burning of the old Summer…