Indonesia has asked the Netherlands to hand back at least eight art pieces and natural history collections that were acquired during the colonial era, including the remains of a landmark hominid known as “Java Man.”
Identified as the first-ever example discovered of a Homo erectus, a forerunner of anatomically modern humans, “Java Man” is the centerpiece of an important collection at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden.
It comprises a femur and most of a cranium, discovered on the Indonesian island of Java by Dutch anatomist and geologist Eugene Dubois in 1891-1892, when Indonesia was still a colony of the Netherlands.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Asked about Jakarta’s request, Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science spokesman Jules van de Ven on Tuesday said Indonesia made the request “during the summer.”
Other pieces sought by Indonesia in the Dubois collection include the horse-riding reins of Prince Diponegoro, a Javanese royal who opposed Dutch colonial rule in the 19th century, and the so-called “Lombok treasure” of golden artifacts, the Dutch daily newspaper Trouw reported.
Van de Ven said a government-appointed commission would start a probe in December and make recommendations to Dutch State Secretary for Culture and Media Gunay Uslu, adding that he could not give a timeline for the work.
The Dutch government had “very constructive” discussions with their Indonesian counterparts, Ven added.
“Not only did we speak about returns, but also about cooperation in scientific studies and exhibitions,” he said.
The Naturalis museum told Trouw it “understood the Indonesian claim,” but was surprised that Indonesia viewed objects of natural history in a similar vein as historical artifacts.
The Java skull would not have been found if it was not for Dubois, it added.
Indonesia’s approach to its former colonial master follows that of African countries in pressing Britain, France, Germany and Belgium to return historic or cultural items that were looted during their rule.
In the past few years the Netherlands has started to grapple with the legacy of its colonialism in the former Dutch East Indies.
The archipelago declared its independence in August 1945 after being under Dutch rule for three centuries. Dutch recognition took place in 1949 after four years of bloody fighting.
The Netherlands apologized in February after a study found that the Dutch army used “systematic and extreme violence” during the independence war.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS