Second Repatriation of Cultural Objects to Indonesia - Indonesia
Second Repatriation of Cultural Objects to Indonesia
In response to Indonesia's request, the Netherlands is returning 288 objects from the Dutch State Collection to Indonesia. These objects were taken to the Netherlands during the colonial period and are of cultural interest to Indonesia.
Eppo Bruins, Minister of Education, Culture, and Science of the Netherlands, has made the decision to return the cultural objects. In doing so, he is following the advice of the Colonial Collections Committee chaired by Lilian Gonçalves-Ho Kang You. The cultural objects are currently in the collection of the Wereldmuseum. Experts and organizations in the field of museums and collections in the Netherlands and Indonesia collaborated intensively to make this return possible. Minister Bruins stated:
“This is the second time we are returning objects that should never have been in the Netherlands, based on recommendations from the Colonial Collections Committee. The return of these objects is important with regard to material redress.”
This is the second set of recommendations issued by the Colonial Collections Committee. The Colonial Collections Committee also returned objects to Indonesia and Sri Lanka in the summer of 2023. With this return, the ministry continues its course.
The following objects will be returned:
- Four Hindu-Buddhist sculptures, namely statues of Bhairava, Nandi, Ganesha, and Brahma, were brought to the Netherlands from Java in the first half of the 19th century.
- 284 objects from the Puputan Badung Collection. These include objects such as weapons, coins, jewelry, and textiles that were taken to the Netherlands after a war against the Badung and Tabanan principalities in southern Bali in 1906 and eventually added to the collection of the Wereldmuseum.
The cultural objects will be officially returned to Indonesia on 20 September at the Wereldmuseum in Amsterdam, in the presence of the Director-General for Culture of Republic of Indonesia, Hilmar Farid, and the Indonesian Repatriation Committee. The Colonial Collections Committee advised the Minister to return these objects on the basis of provenance research by the Wereldmuseum and in accordance with the national policy on colonial collections. These recommendations have been established in close dialogue and cooperation with the Indonesian Repatriation Committee and other experts. It demonstrates the close bilateral relations between Indonesia and the Netherlands in the cultural field.
The Committee's recommendations have been published on its website.
Further recommendations are being prepared in response to other requests from Nigeria, Sri Lanka, India, and Indonesia.