VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - Director General of Culture of the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, Hilmar Farid will represent the Indonesian government to receive the handover of historical collections from the Netherlands represented by Gunay Uslu, Junior Minister of Education, Culture and Science of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, on Monday, July 10, 2023 at the Volkenkunde Museum, Leiden, the Netherlands.

At the same event, the Technical Arrangement and Acknowledgment of Transfer of Rights from the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Republic of Indonesia will also be signed.

The repatriation of Indonesian collections in the Netherlands is possible thanks to the cooperation and hard work of the two repatriation committees as well as the support of both governments, namely, the Directorate General of Culture of the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology which has initiated the formation of the Indonesian Repatriation Team and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, Chairman of the Repatriation Team for Indonesian Collections in the Netherlands, and the Dutch Colonial Objects Repatriation Committee, led by Lilian Gonçalvez-Ho Kang You, have been communicating positively and productively for the past two years in order to continue cooperation and encourage the return of historical objects from the Netherlands to Indonesia.

The history of the art collection's arrival in the Netherlands remains partly unclear. It began with the Prime Minister of East Indonesia, Ide Agung Anak Gde Agung, who is said to have organized exhibitions of the artworks in several Dutch and European cities between 1948 and 1950.

But an article in De Vrije Katheder, December 23, 1946 had discussed an exhibition of Pita Maha's works, 'an important collection', at the van Lier art gallery in Castricum. In 1955, the collection was deposited at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam.

After a series of comprehensive expert studies, four artifact collections, namely the 132 Balinese art objects collection of Pita Maha, the Singasari Statue, the Lombok royal heirloom, and the Puputan Klungkung keris will be returned to Indonesia. The 132 collections of Balinese art objects include paintings, wood carvings, silver objects and textiles by maestro artists who are members of the Pita Maha art group.

An association of Balinese artists founded on January 29, 1936 by Tjokorda Gde Agung Sukawati, I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, Walter Spies, and Rudolf Bonet. Meanwhile, the four Singasari statues kept at the Volkenkunde Museum, Leiden are prima donnas from the 13th century.

The four statues come from Singasari temple which was erected to honor the death of King Kertanegara, the last dynasty of the Singasari kingdom. The four statues that will return to Indonesia are Durga, Mahakala, Nandishvara, and Ganesha. (VOI)