For second time cultural artefacts to be returned to Indonesia

20 September 2024

In response to a request from Indonesia, the Netherlands is returning 288 objects from the Dutch State Collection to Indonesia. These objects were wrongfully taken to the Netherlands during the colonial period and are of cultural interest to Indonesia.

Minister of Education, Culture and Science Eppo Bruins has decided to return the artefacts. In doing so, he is following the advice of the Colonial Collections Committee chaired by Lilian Gonçalves-Ho Kang You. The artefacts are currently in the collection of the Wereldmuseum. Experts and organisations in the field of museums and collections in both countries collaborated intensively to make this return possible. Minister of Education, Culture and Science: “Commenting on the decision, Minister Bruins said: “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. In the colonial period, cultural objects were often looted, or they changed hands involuntarily in some other way. 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. In the summer of 2023, objects were also returned to Indonesia, and to Sri Lanka. With this return, the Ministry is thus continuing its course.

The following objects will be returned:

• Four Hindu-Buddhist sculptures, namely statues of Bhairava, Nandi, Ganesha and Brahma, 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, jewellery 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 artefacts will be officially returned to Indonesia on 20 September at the Wereldmuseum in Amsterdam, in the presence of the director-general for culture 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 has published its recommendations. Further recommendations are being prepared in response to other requests from Nigeria, Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia.