JAKARTA - The Indonesian government has begun discussing the process of transferring the Papua Museum in Germany to Indonesia. The museum, located in the city of Gelnhausen, houses around 1,700 Papua cultural collections collected over the past decades by Werner Weiglein, a collector and observer of Indonesian culture from Germany.
Minister of Culture Fadli Zon received Werner Weiglein at the Ministry of Culture Office, Jakarta, Tuesday, May 26. The meeting discussed the process of transferring museum ownership as well as efforts to strengthen Indonesian cultural diplomacy abroad.
Fadli appreciated Werner's move to start digitizing the museum's collection. The collection is planned to be handed over to the Indonesian government through the Ministry of Culture.
According to Fadli, the collection has an important value to strengthen Indonesian cultural diplomacy at the international level.
The Ministry of Culture also plans to involve the Museum and Cultural Heritage Patron Council to oversee the process of transferring the museum. The government wants to discuss various options regarding the ownership and management status of the thousands of collections in the museum.
Werner started collecting cultural objects since the 1970s. In the 1980s, he actively traveled to a number of regions in Indonesia, including Papua and Sulawesi.
The Papua Museum which he manages in Gelnhausen has so far become a space for introducing Papua's ethnographic heritage to the international public. His collection is considered important for Indonesian cultural diplomacy abroad.
Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture Bambang Wibawarta said the museum grant process still requires a number of supporting documents.
According to Bambang, the Directorate General of State Assets or DJKN of the Ministry of Finance requires data related to the building area and official property documents of the museum before the appraisal process is carried out.
The document is needed as a material for examination before the publication of the assessment value of buildings and collections to be handed over to the Indonesian government.
The meeting was also attended by the Director General of Diplomacy, Promotion, and Cultural Cooperation Endah T.D. Retnoastuti and a number of other officials from the Ministry of Culture.
The Ministry of Culture said the transfer of the Papua Museum in Germany was part of an effort to strengthen cultural diplomacy and promote Indonesia's cultural wealth abroad.
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