90 Percent Collection Of National Museums Saved, The Most Difficult Kayu-Cin Materials To Reconstruct

The post-fire situation of the Indonesian National Museum (MNI) in Jakarta, Sunday 17 September 2023. (ANTARA-Devi Nindy)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian National Museum has managed to save 90 percent of its collection after the fire scorched six rooms behind building A on September 16, 2023. "There have been more than 90 percent of the collections that have been saved, only a few small collections such as beads are still we fit, as well as collections made of wood, some of which we can still take, and until now we are still analyzing. We have to make some other wood material, but we are trying to keep looking," said Curator of the Indonesian National Museum Budiman at the Kemendikbudristek office, Jakarta, Thursday, December 7, confiscated by Antara. He explained that the area of space affected by the fire was about 24 percent of the A building. The affected spaces include ceramic, terakota, clay, prehistoric, bronze, and some in the Indonesian cultural space. "Because the electricity went out (given that the National Museum was still closed until around the end of 2024), rescues were slightly disrupted, so we evacuated historical objects to safer rooms. There were rescue devices, we were still keeping them there and on a regular basis we were still checking, once every two days we routinely checked," he said. Until now, the evacuation process is still ongoing and there are several samples that are still in the process of being identified, and some collections of conditions are no longer possible. For wood and cloth materials, Budiman admitted that his party had difficulty reconstructing it, because most of it had been damaged, so it was likely to be remade after going through the identification process. "If wood and cloth are indeed difficult, yes, materially to reconstruct, wood is actually many models, so there are models of houses, boats are also there, which maybe the next step we can only recreate from the damaged collection, as well as cloth, because reconstruction is difficult," he explained. He recounted that one of the Arca Siwa's cabinets whose cabinet was broken made the wrist fall and break. "On the first day (the fire market) we found the statue, if it was Siwa, there were four hands, yes, now it was two broken, one found, one has not, we are looking for it, then we decided to match the soil sediment in order to look for the remains of the collection found. Finally, the statue's wrist has been found complete and suitable, and later the next reconstruction will be carried out," he said.

Budiman and the reconstruction team admitted that they had not been able to determine the target for completing the rescue of this National Museum collection, but his party had so far carried out the evacuation, identification, and remediation stages. "Only about 28 collections, next year we will restore it, which is the stage of the final solution, because after all we certainly try our best to return the collection to its original state," he said. He also invited the public to pray for this reconstruction process to run smoothly, because the National Museum of Indonesia will present its new face when it reopens, around the end of 2024. "Just wait, we have discussed with many parties to rejuvenate or create a museum with a new face, hopefully next year if it runs smoothly," he concluded.