National Museum Identification Of 243 Collections Affected By Building Fire

Several statues of the post-fire National Museum collection are currently on temporary storage shelves at the National Museum, Jakarta, Wednesday (20/9/2023). (ANTARA/HO-Kemendikbudristek)

JAKARTA - The Special Team for Handling the Indonesian National Museum Unit (MNI) identified 243 collections from 817 collections affected after the museum complex fire incident. Acting Head of the Public Service Agency for Museums and Cultural Heritage (MCB) Ahmad Mahendra said the team continued to work and made full efforts to handle the evacuation process, identification and restoration of collections of objects and historical buildings. "The exhibition room for the pre-historic, bronze and some of the cities has been successfully evacuated, and we have started evacuating ceramic collection rooms. We also encourage additional experts for the identification team to speed up the identification stage process. To this day, we have identified 243 collections that we have identified ” Mahendra said in a statement broadcast in Jakarta, Antara, Wednesday, September 27. Along with the process of accelerating evacuation, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) continues to establish intensive communication with experts, communities, and partners at home and abroad in designing MNI recovery plans and improving museum quality and cultural heritage in general. A series of discussions on the MNI recovery plan and a direct review of the MNI together with archaeologists, anthropologists, culture, history, curators and academics began on September 23. The MNI recovery plan will be divided into several stages. After the rescue stage of the affected collection is documented and identified, the identification of the damage to the MNI building which is also a classified building as a Cultural Conservation will be implemented. " “ National Cultural Heritage Experts are conducting several studies and analysis to provide recommendations for handling cultural heritage to the Ministry of Education and Culture. Later there will be an audit of all MNI buildings through building feasibility studies, a study of all buildings consisting of architectural, structural, material, building security, and so on, "continued Mahendra. He said Tuesday (26/9) a meeting with the World Bank was also held to discuss the design of the Disaster Risk Management Plan or programs and risk assessments of special disasters for museums and cultural heritages. "This program is carried out to prepare Museums and Cultural Heritage in Indonesia in tackling the potential and challenges of disasters they face," he said.

"“Together with the World Bank, we will collaborate to develop emergency response work programs and plans for disasters in museums and cultural heritages. This program will also use Disaster Resilient Cultural Heritage Guidelines issued by the Directorate General of Culture in 2023 as an initial reference ”," Mahendra concluded.