Indonesia showcases artifacts returned from the Netherlands

NINIEK KARMINI

Centuries-old stone Buddha statues and precious jewelries repatriated by the Dutch government to its former colony are on display at Indonesia’s National Museum, providing a glimpse into the country’s rich heritage that the government had struggled to retrieve. The collection is part of more than 800 artifacts that were returned under a Repatriation Agreement signed in 2022 between Indonesia and the Netherlands, said Gunawan, the museum’s head of cultural heritage. The objects are not just those looted in conflict, but also seized by scientists and missionaries or smuggled by mercenaries during the four centuries of colonial rule.

“I was so amazed that we have all of these artifacts,” said Shaloom Azura, a visitor to the museum in Jakarta. She hoped other historical objects can be repatriated too, “so we don’t have to go to the Netherlands just to see our own cultural heritage.” The agreement to return cultural objects was inspired by the new era of global restitution and repatriation efforts. In 2021, France said it was returning statues, royal thrones and sacred altars taken from the West African nation of Benin. Belgium returned a gold-capped tooth belonging to the slain Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba.

Cambodia in 2023 welcomed the return of priceless stolen artifacts that had been seized during periods of war and instability. Many of the items returned so far have come from the United States. And the Berlin museum authority said it would return hundreds of human skulls from the former German colony of East Africa. The Dutch government announced the same year the return of the Indonesian treasures and looted artifacts from Sri Lanka.

The repatriation “is not something out of the blue” but followed a lengthy process, said I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, former Indonesian ambassador to the Netherlands who also headed the government’s team tasked to recover the objects.

He said negotiations with the Dutch government have been ongoing since Indonesia’s independence in August 1945, but it was only in July 2022 that Indonesia formally requested the return of its cultural objects with a list of specific items. “This repatriation is important for us to reconstruct history that may be lost or obscured or manipulated,” Puja said. “And we can fill the gap of the historical vacuum that has existed so far.” The Dutch government in 1978 returned the famous 13th-century statue of princess Pradnya Paramita from the Javanese Singhasari Kingdom. During the same visit to Indonesia, then-Queen Juliana also returned a saddle and spear seized from Prince Diponegoro, a Javanese nobleman considered a national hero for his struggle against colonial rule in the 19th century.

The prince’s scepter was returned in 2015. In 2020, Dutch King Willem-Alexander handed over Diponegoro’s gold-plated kris dagger in his first state visit to Indonesia. Also pending is the return of the “Java Man” — the first known example of homo erectus that was collected by Dutch paleoanthropologist Eugene Dubois in the 19th century.

“The importance of the most recent repatriation is knowledge creation, that will give society a more complete knowledge of our past history,” said Puja.