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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to