Finally, in a welcome move to combat its colonial abuses, the Netherlands responded to requests from Indonesia and Sri Lanka for the return of 478 cultural objects looted during Dutch colonial rule.
“This is a historic moment,” Günay Uslu, Secretary of State for Culture and Media, said in a statement, adding: “For the first time… we are bringing back cultural sites that should never have been in the Netherlands.” The return to Indonesia follows the July 10 handover ceremony at the National Museum of Ethnology; The return of the plant to Sri Lanka is scheduled for the end of this year.
The decision follows a long-awaited apology from King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who acknowledged his country's role in the slave trade. In 2020, he apologized to Indonesia for the "excessive violence" committed during the Dutch colonial era. While this apology is largely symbolic, the recent repatriation of assets at the request of a former colonial nation can be seen as an active step towards restorative justice.
Parts that had to be repatriated were exported during Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia (1816–1941) and Sri Lanka (1658–1796). These include an ornate cannon stolen from the Kandy Palace in Sri Lanka in 1765 and four stone statues stolen from a temple in the former Javanese kingdom of Singasari. Also returning are the remains of the so-called "Treasures of Lombok" - a collection of precious stones, gems and metals stolen from the Royal Palace on the Indonesian island of Lombok in 1895 (the first batch was returned in 1977).
Six items will be removed from the collections of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the national museum of the Netherlands; They represented the first repatriation by the establishment of colonial facilities.
Both Indonesia and Sri Lanka have previously demanded the return of numerous stolen cultural objects that are still in public collections in the Netherlands. For example, in July 2022, Indonesia submitted a list of cultural heritage sites it considers to be of particular importance, including the remains of "Javanese Man", the first known early human specimen of Homo erectus . Boni Triana, a member of Indonesia's repatriation committee, stated at the time that the request for repatriation was "a sign of a much larger event". However, the Javanese was not included among the first returnees to be sent home in July, as a decision regarding the body has yet to be made. Demands for the return of looted colonial artifacts were usually met with resistance from the Dutch, and negotiations continued - until now.
Secretary of State Uslu said the Dutch government acted on the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on the Return of Cultural Property from a Colonial Context, established in 2019. A committee chaired by Lilian Gonçalves-Ho Kang Yu published a report in 2020. The Dutch government has stated that “the recognition of injustice and the desire to correct it as far as possible is the main principle of the policy regarding colonial collections in the Netherlands. museums The report also states: "The Netherlands must be prepared to return unconditionally cultural property stolen from a former Dutch colony upon request by the country of origin."
The report also notes that addressing historic violence and injustice does not always involve the physical return of cultural property. He warned that the Netherlands should be careful not to pursue a neo-colonial approach based solely on their own views and standards, but instead focus on the needs of former colonial countries. This advice is perhaps one of the most progressive approaches in Europe, with other countries, especially the UK, being blamed for delaying the repatriation of looted cultural property.
Dutch repatriation shows that European governments can indeed change their national policies and remove items from their national collections.
Notably, Foreign Minister Uslu said that the return of the nearly 500 objects would mark the beginning of a period of "greater cooperation with Indonesia and Sri Lanka in areas such as research on collections, exhibitions and exchanges between museums." If the Netherlands takes more active steps to pursue its colonial crimes and meet the demands of its homeland, other former colonial masters may follow suit.
