The Netherlands Returns Hundreds of Cultural Artifacts to Indonesia

The repatriation, the second of its kind by the Dutch, shows a working model for returning looted treasures from Europe to former colonies around the world.

The Dutch government returned centuries-old stone Buddhist statues, a bejeweled serpentine armband and other looted artifacts to its former colony Indonesia on Friday, a rare example of cultural objects taken during colonialism making their way back home.

The Netherlands returned 288 items in a ceremony at the World Museum in Amsterdam, where the artifacts had been held. The repatriation is only the second by the Dutch since a 2020 report by a government advisory committee recommended returning art and other objects taken during four centuries of the country’s colonial era.

The report was part of the Netherlands reckoning with that legacy and involvement in slavery. The country was returning “objects that should never have been in the Netherlands,” Eppo Bruins, the minister of education, culture and science, said in a statement.

The exchange shows an evolving restitution process, after several former colonial powers in Europe pledged to return prized historical objects to countries in Africa, Asia and South America. Countries like France and Belgium, which have thousands of such treasures in public collections, have moved slowly, however, hindered by the arduous work of identifying, tracing and returning the often delicate objects.

The Dutch government was following an expanded definition of which objects are eligible for return that was adopted after the 2020 report. The objects are not just those looted in conflict, but also seized by missionaries, for example, or smuggled by mercenaries and other colonial-era runners.

“In the colonial period, cultural objects were often looted, or they changed hands involuntarily in some other way,” Mr. Bruins said.

Last year, Indonesia filed a claim to the Dutch Commission of Colonial Collections for the statues, which were taken from an unfinished temple complex built in the 13th century in East Java, according to the commission. The Indonesian Repatriation Commission also filed a claim for traditional weapons, jewelry and other treasures that were looted in the early 20th century.

To return them, Dutch researchers had to prove the objects’ provenance. While researchers were able to trace the objects’ historical paths from kingdoms in Indonesia to museums in the Netherlands, it is often difficult to produce the archival evidence needed to prove where looted objects come from, said Jos van Beurden, an independent researcher who specializes in restitution. The recommendations of the 2020 report eased some of these requirements.

The objects will now be sent to the National Museum in Jakarta, where they will likely be housed among other restored objects, said Mr. van Beurden, who has visited the museum.

Critics of the repatriation process have questioned how poorer countries will store the returned objects. But that should be of no concern to former colonial powers, said Marieke van Bommel, director general of the National Museum of World Cultures in the Netherlands, a network that includes the Amsterdam museum.

“The thief cannot tell the rightful owners what to do with their property,” Ms. van Bommel said.

The Dutch museum has been in talks with its Indonesian counterparts for more than a decade, long before it became government policy to return the artifacts, she said. Other efforts to return objects have usually been driven by collaboration between museums, rather than the pledges by government leaders.

“One of the bad things of colonialism was the creation of so much distrust,” Mr. van Beurden said. “But, trust is growing between the two parties so that they can discuss it.”

Unlike some other former colonies, Indonesia had the resources and cultural muscle to reclaim its looted objects, he added.

The Netherlands holds thousands of artifacts from around the world, mostly in museums, but some may also still be part of private collections, making it harder to trace them.

Nigeria and India have also filed repatriation claims. At least four Dutch museums are known to house objects that British soldiers looted from the Benin kingdom on Africa’s West coast, while the copper manuscripts of India’s 17th century Chola Empire are listed as donated to the Leiden University by a Dutch family.

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