In his book, ‘Tarnished Gold’, Gijs van der Ham tells the story of the Dutch presence in Ghana, referencing a fascinating series of artefacts, maps, drawings, engravings and paintings. Most of these are part of the Rijksmuseum collection in Amsterdam. This painful yet fascinating tale encompasses inhumanity and curiosity, competition and exploitation, power and subjugation; the collision of two vastly different cultures; and the dramatic and irrevocable transformation of countless lives — most tragically, by the slave trade. Gijs van der Ham (b. 1955) is a senior history curator at the Rijksmuseum. In 2013, he published The History of the Netherlands in 100 Objects, a book based on the same collection. Tarnished Gold is part of the Country Series published by the Rijksmuseum’s History Department. Through the examination of artefacts from the Rijksmuseum Collection, the series explores the shared history of the Netherlands with Indonesia, Japan, China, India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Ghana, Suriname, and Brazil. Tekst in het Engels.