Bandung, IndonesiaSentinel.com — The Dutch government returned 288 artifacts to Indonesia on Friday, September 20, 2024. The artifacts, repatriated to its former nations, include centuries-old stone Buddha statues and gem-encrusted bracelets.
A handover ceremony took place on Friday at the Wereldmuseum in Amsterdam, where the artifacts had been stored and displayed. Indonesia’s Director-General of Culture at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbud), Hilmar Farid, represented the Indonesian government at the event, alongside representatives from the Indonesian Repatriation Committee.
This marks the second major return of artifacts from the Netherlands since a 2020 advisory committee report recommended the repatriation of art and other objects taken during the four-century colonial era in Indonesia. The collection returned includes 284 items such as coins, weapons, and jewelry linked to the Puputan Badung, an event in 1906 when Dutch colonial forces defeated the Kingdoms of Badung and Tabanan in Bali.
Additionally, four Hindu-Buddhist statues depicting Bhairava, Nandi, Ganesha, and Brahma were returned. These statues were taken from Java during the early 19th century.
“The country is returning items that should never have been in the Netherlands,” said Dutch Minister of Education, Culture, and Science, Eppo Bruins, in a statement cited by The New York Times on Saturday, September 21, 2024.
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The restitution marks a growing trend among former European colonial powers to return valuable historical artifacts to countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. The Dutch government has broadened its criteria for items eligible for repatriation, extending beyond looted items to include those taken by missionaries, mercenaries, and other colonial-era figures.
“During the colonial period, cultural objects were often looted or changed hands without proper consent in other ways,” Bruins explained.
Last year, Indonesia submitted a claim to the Dutch Colonial Collection Commission for statues taken from an unfinished 13th-century temple complex in East Java. The Indonesian Repatriation Committee has also filed claims for traditional weapons, jewelry, and other treasures looted in the early 20th century.
To facilitate these returns, Dutch researchers had to establish the provenance of the artifacts. Despite their ability to trace the historical paths of these items from Indonesian kingdoms to Dutch museums, it often proved difficult to provide conclusive archival evidence of their origins.
Hundreds of these artifacts will be shipped to the National Museum in Jakarta, where they are expected to be displayed alongside other restored items.
Dutch museums have been negotiating with their Indonesian counterparts for over a decade, long before repatriation became a government policy. Previous efforts to return cultural objects were often driven by museum collaborations rather than promises from political leaders.
(Raidi/Agung)
