The Return Of 1,500 Indonesian Historical Objects From The Netherlands

One of Indonesia's historical objects that came back from the Netherlands (Twitter @MuseumNasional)

JAKARTA - As many as 1,500 historical cultural objects in the Prinsenhof Museum in Delft, the Netherlands returned to Indonesia. The repatriation of these historical collections was received by the Directorate General of Culture, Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia, through the repartition process.

Quoting Deutsche Welle (DW), the Director General of Culture of the Republic of Indonesia, Hilmar Farid, said that the collection had arrived in Indonesia since December 23, 2019. Now the collection has entered the data collection stage so that later it can be exhibited.

"In essence, there are 1,500 collections that were originally at the Nusantara Museum in the City of Delft, the Netherlands. They were returned to Indonesia through the National Museum," Hilmar said as quoted by VOI, Sunday, December 5.

Hilmar explained that discussions about the return or repatriation of Indonesian cultural objects in the Netherlands had been planned since 2015. It's just that the process is constrained by various factors such as licensing, law, politics, and the diplomatic process which is quite tough until it can only be realized now.

He explained that the return of this historic collection was carried out as an effort to save Indonesian cultural objects that were previously taken and obtained in an inappropriate manner. The meaning of inappropriate means, for example, through war, or pillaging during the colonial period.

"This is the first time in Indonesian history, that Indonesian cultural objects or artifacts were brought back in an inappropriate manner, or what is called Koloniale Roofkunst (art stolen by the colonial country)," said Hilmar.

National Museum employees have also not escaped the flood disaster that has hit Jakarta and its surroundings, but the collection is waiting to be identified. First day Identification of 1,500 newly arrived collections from Delft Holland. @Real_Real_Real @Real_Real_Real 15m

- National Museum of Ind. (@MuseumNasional) January 2, 2020

The objects that have been received by the National Museum currently total 1,499 collections. One other collection, previously submitted directly to President Joko Widodo, will soon be processed to be submitted to the National Museum.

The oldest collection is recorded from Kalimantan, aged 5,000 to 1,000 BC (BC) in the form of an ax. While the youngest collections come from the 1940's.

If traced, the process of returning a collection of Indonesian historical objects has been carried out symbolically on 23 November 2016. At that time, the Prime Minister (PM) of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, directly handed over a bugis keris to President Joko Widodo as a symbolic form of returning a historic collection in the Netherlands.

Later the public will be able to see all of these historic collections, in an exhibition that will be held by the Indonesian Museum in June 2020.