Historic return of museum objects to Indonesia and Sri Lanka

Four massive statues originally from the Candi Singosari in East Java, 335 objects of the so-called Lombok treasure from Indonesia, a small canon made of gold, silver and rubies from the court of Kandy and a ceremonial kastane (sword) from Sri Lanka. These are among the objects that will soon find their way from the collections of the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden (currently part of Wereldmuseum, which is formerly known as National Museum van Wereldculturen) and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to their countries of origin. Secretary of State for Culture and Media Gunay Uslu made the return of the 478 objects, which is in line with the recommendations by the Advisory Committee on the Return of Cultural Objects from Colonial Context, chaired by Lilian Gonçalves-Ho Kang You, of October 2020.

Uslu visited Indonesia in September last year, heading a cultural mission which included several meetings and conversations with the Indonesian repatriation committee chaired by I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja (former ambassador of Indonesia to the Netherlands). Along with the State secretary, a number of representatives of Dutch museums and heritage organization traveled to Jakarta. DutchCulture helped the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta to organize several meetings with Indonesian counterparts and site visits for these representatives.

In the press release by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences, Uslu stated: "This is a historic moment. It’s the first time we’re following the recommendations of the Committee to give back objects that should never have been brought to the Netherlands. But more than anything, it’s a moment to look to the future. We’re not only returning objects; we’re also embarking on a period of closer cooperation with Indonesia and Sri Lanka in areas like collection research, presentation and exchanges between museums."

Both Indonesia and Sri Lanka had requested the return of several objects. The Wereldmuseum and Rijksmuseum, who currently have these objects in their collections, then set into extensive research on the provenance of these objects, or how they ended up in the Netherlands, and in their collections. This provenance research of the objects from Indonesia and Sri Lanka has been done in close collaboration with the Indonesian repatriation committee and Sri Lankan researchers. This eventually resulted in the decision to return these 478 objects.

• The ‘Lombok treasure’, consisting of 335 objects from Lombok

• Four statues from Candi Singasari

• A keris from Klungkung

• 132 objects of modern art from Bali, known as the Pita Maha collection

Sri Lanka

• Lewke’s canon

• Gold kastane (ceremonial sword)

• Singalese knive

• Silver kastane

• Two guns

Further reading about this historic return of objects to Indonesia and Sri Lanka:

The transfer of ownership to Indonesia will take place at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden on 10 July. The transfer of ownership to Sri Lanka will take place later this year. For other objects of which the return was requested - such as the Dubois collection (known for the ‘Java man’) remaining currently at Museum Naturalis and the Koran of the Indonesian resistance fighter Teukoe Oemar - a decision still has to be made by the Secretary of State Uslu.