589 National Museum Collections Successfully Identified

The page of the Indonesian National Museum on Sunday (11/12/2022). (ANTARA/Rio Feisal)

JAKARTA - The Special Team for Handling the Indonesian National Museum Unit (MNI) succeeded in evacuating and identifying 589 among the 817 National Museum collections affected by the fire.

Acting Head of the Public Service Agency for Museums and Cultural Heritage (BLU MCB) Ahmad Mahendra said that although the work was done was complex and needed caution, the team managed to identify 589 artifacts within two weeks.

The team is still continuing the process of identifying objects in the three museum collection rooms.

"Until today, the evacuation and identification process continues in the collection of ceramics, cities and civilizations," he said, quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, October 10.

Mahendra said that further handling of the remaining affected rooms, such as the Indonesian Cultural Room, after the police finished conducting an investigation and after his party received permission to carry out the evacuation and identification of these national historical objects.

His party has also started the classification process for the level of damage to every collection that has been saved. The quartic classification target is completed this month.

"We are targeting the classification process of damage levels for each affected collection to be completed as early as this month," he said.

Mahendra explained that the classification process was divided into three categories, namely collections affected by light, medium, and heavy.

After the collection rescue stage, the Special Team for Handling the MNI Unit entered the analysis stage in order to determine recommendations for the remediation process and/or appropriate restoration.

During the process, the National Museum was closed to the public.

However, his party is currently designing a program so that people can access collections in MNI.

"Seeing the public's enthusiasm for the presentation of the collection of artifacts and historical objects in the MNI, currently BLU MCB is also planning a series of programs so that the public can still access the MNI collection. This is important so that the use of knowledge can continue," said Mahendra.