BREAKING - LIVE UPDATE: Museum Under Fire. 472 Indonesian Artifacts have been stolen by the Dutch, at least 4 returned, but Indonesia's biggest museum has burned.
BREAKING - LIVE UPDATE: Museum Under Fire. 472 Indonesian Artifacts have been stolen by the Dutch, at least 4 returned, but Indonesia's biggest museum has burned.
in DUTCH & ENGLISH. Was die roofkunst bij ons toch in betere handen. If only that stolen art were in better hands with us (the colonzer / dutch). Verschrikkelijk verlies; onvervangbare collectie
*pray to Indonesia’s National Museum, hopefully just a few destroyed artifacts.
UPDATE 8.33pm Jakarta / 3.33pm Amsterdam
Museum-date is arguably to be a new trend in Indonesia from 2022: cheap, entertaining, a lot of knowledge. Also, in the last 3 years, the Indonesia Education Ministry set a long-term project: a lot of Indonesian artifacts, currently in Bangkok, in Amsterdam, in Leiden, in New Delhi or Kolkata, in Paramaribo, back to Indonesia again. In number, the total target by the Education Ministry is (at least) 472 artifacts just from Dutch alone.
But a setback today, Indonesia National Museum, the 2nd biggest museum in Southeast Asia, has burned (8pm Jakarta time / 3pm Amsterdam time), still burning until this note writing (fire already ended around 10pm Jakarta time). Implication is, stolen objects not be returned to unsafe museums. The Kunsthaus Zurich had a fire last year. Four hundred artworks, including Dutch old masters, were damaged. Is Switzerland now unsafe? And wasn't a Van Gogh painting stolen from a Dutch museum in 2020?
It’s explainable (something other than justifying). Without inlander mentality, for a long time there was an argument against the restitution of looted art. In discussion, doubts about good conservation in countries of origin were used. Timing unfortunate because Indonesia National Museum on fire, significant damage. (Even) A lot of Indonesian doubt how Indonesia government can manage “priceless artifacts”, again, without inlander mentality. Just clear about standard procedure.
*The Netherlands Secretary of State for Culture and Media Gunay Uslu (black), Mr Hilmar Farid - Directorate Generale, Indonesia Education Ministry (yellow/gold batik), Bonnie Triyana - the central person on repatriation programme (red batik)
472 Indonesian Artifacts have been stolen by the Dutch, at least 4 returned to Indonesia (including ARCA SINGASARI), but Indonesia's biggest museum has burned. (*not counting a lot of Indonesian Artifacts in other countries). The devastating fire at The Museum Nasional in Jakarta on 16 September went unnoticed because the 24-hour guards were all standing in orderly rows at another location listening to their superiors lecture on how to do their jobs properly. Statement on the recently repatriated Singosari statues safety:
2-3 Decades, artists, independent historians, descendants of veterans of the independence war and communities connected to colonial histories have begun to demand recognition of the enduring legacies of colonialism in the Netherlands and Indonesia.
Both in the Netherlands and Indonesia, citizens of varying backgrounds are paying increasing attention to 'submerged histories' of Dutch colonialism. These are histories that are not immediately visible nor recognisable in nationalist representations of the past. This rapidly emerging Dutch and Indonesian collaborative memory activism challenges the muted and underdeveloped critiques of colonial history in both countries by paying attention to what has been submerged or displaced. One of sensitive issue is repatriation, a massive artifacts (should) returned to Indonesia.
Drawing on memory studies, gender studies and social movement theories, motivations, strategies and future plans of Indonesian and Dutch persons engaged in debates about memory. It investigates their impact on public institutions and their role in setting trends in global social movements.
January 2020, the Dutch government has returned 1,500 historical artifacts to Indonesia, four years after an agreement was made with the Education and Culture Ministry. “Basically, there are 1,500 [objects] that used to be held in the Nusantara Museum in Delft, Netherlands, which were returned to Indonesia through the national museum,” Education and Culture Ministry culture director-general Hilman Farid. The 100-year-old Nusantara Museum was the only museum in the Netherlands dedicated specifically to art and cultural objects from Indonesia, a former Dutch colony, and it closed its doors in 2013 due to financial difficulties.
The museum had initially offered to hand over around 12,000 artifacts to Indonesia, but the culture director-general opted to accept a selection of 1,500 objects instead. The repatriation process symbolically started in November 2016, when Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte presented President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo with a Bugis keris from the collection. “This is the first time in the history of Indonesia that Indonesian cultural objects or artifacts that were taken [to the Netherlands] are returned,” Hilman said. “This is very historic and we want to share it with the public. Hopefully, this paves the way for the return of objects in other European museums.”
Before its closure, the 100-year-old Nusantara Museum was the only museum in the Netherlands dedicated specifically to art and cultural objects from Indonesia, which had been a Dutch colony. The museum had initially offered to hand over around 12,000 artifacts to Indonesia, but the culture directorate-general opted to accept a selection of 1,500 objects instead. Historians, or the historical guild, bear much responsibility for the unremembering of decolonization in Dutch collective memory.
*Mr Bonnie Triyana, lead repatriation of artifacts, admit the area affected of fire/blaze
Exhibition hall at the Indonesia National Museum (PUSAKA NUSANTARA) which housed archeological, anthropological ethnographic and geographic artifacts was one of the buildings affected by the fire. Parts of Indonesia's National Museum in Jakarta are destroyed by a large fire. Firefighers have control over the fire and are working on putting it out. Parts of the museum look destroyed though.
(*Hilmar Farid - Directorate Generale of Indonesia Education Ministry, white helmet; Nadiem Anwar Makarim - Minister of Education; yellow helmet)
Based on imagery in their last video, we can see that roughly the red outlined area of buildings was lost, a significant part has been totally destroyed, damaged area likely much bigger (water, smoke damage and such)
*statement by official account of INDONESIA MUSEUM, posted around 10.32pm Jakarta time / 5.32pm Amsterdam. The National Museum has also made a statement (in Indonesian) on twitter confirming the fire and that an investigation will start to find the cause of the fire as well as assess damage to buildings and collections.
DUTCH:
Je kunt nooit altijd alle brand voorkomen helaas. Wat zonde, het is een mooi museum en deels een erg fraai historisch gebouw, en het maritiem museum was relatief recent ook al zwaar beschadigd door brand. Verschrikkelijk verlies; onvervangbare collectie. Brand in Nationaal Museum Indonesië, dat teruggegeven kunst moet krijgen. Dit is een ramp. Alsof ons Rijksmuseum in brand stond.
Zelfs zonder een inlandermentaliteit te willen, kwamen er na het uitbreken van de brand in de hoofden van Indonesiërs zoals (nogmaals, niet gerelateerd aan de inlandermentaliteit) sceptici naar voren: is NMI (Indonesie Nationaal Museum) de juiste plek om geretourneerde kunstwerken op te slaan? Of: kan Indonesië de geretourneerde goederen goed bewaren? Maar die is wel verklaarbaar (iets anders dan goed te praten). Lang wás t een argument tegen teruggave roofkunst. In discussie werd twijfel over goede conservatie in landen van herkomst ingezet. Timing ongelukkig als museum nog smeult.
Het treurige is dat Indonesie die druk ook voelt. De laatste persberichten benadrukken dat de thuisgebrachte voorwerpen niet getroffen zijn. Terwijl voor het herstel van onrecht (teruggave van geroofde kunst) de bewaarcondities geen argument zijn.
In het Nationaal Museum in de Indonesische hoofdstad Jakarta heeft brand gewoed. Meerdere opslagruimten voor historische voorwerpen zouden daarbij zijn beschadigd.
Het bewuste museum zou de komende tijd zo'n 472 kunstwerken ontvangen die Nederland teruggeeft aan Indonesië. Die kunstwerken zijn niet in gevaar geweest. "Alleen de Singosari-beelden zijn al naar Indonesië en die zijn veilig", laat een woordvoerder van demissionair staatssecretaris Uslu desgevraagd weten. De voorwerpen die door Nederland aan Indonesië zijn teruggegeven, waaronder vier Singosari Beelden, zouden geen schade hebben geleden.
Ruim anderhalf uur later zou de brandweer erin zijn geslaagd om het vuur te blussen.
Minister Makarim van Onderwijs, Cultuur, Onderzoek en Technologie bezocht het Nationaal Museum na de brand. "Onze belangrijkste prioriteit is nu om zoveel mogelijk kunstvoorwerpen of historische voorwerpen te redden", zei hij. Het museum blijft voorlopig gesloten, nog onbekend is tot wanneer.
Demissionair staatssecretaris Uslu maakte begin juli bekend dat Nederland honderden culturele objecten teruggeeft aan Indonesië. Onder de werken die teruggaan is de 'Lombokschat': grote hoeveelheden goud, zilveren munten en edelstenen die eind 19e eeuw door het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indische Leger (KNIL) werden buitgemaakt.
Of de kunst die Nederland teruggeeft na de brand nog steeds naar het Nationaal Museum in Jakarta gaat, is momenteel onduidelijk. Wel gaan de culturele objecten sowieso naar Indonesië, zegt de woordvoerder van Uslu. "De Indonesische regering beslist waar ze worden tentoongesteld."
Het Nationaal Museum in Jakarta staat in lichterlaaie. De achterwand en het dak van het museum zouden al zijn ingestort. Onduidelijk wat er met de enorme historische collectie van ruim 140 duizend voorwerpen is gebeurd.
De brand in het Nationaal Museum in Jakarta is geblust. Tijd voor de inventarisatie. Maar het onderzoeksteam kan nog niet naar binnen: de brandweer vindt de situatie nog niet veilig. De beelden van de brand doen het ergste vrezen.
Brand in Nationaal Museum in Jakarta mogelijk gevolg van kortsluiting dan is er toch iets mis geweest met sprinklers en/of alarmerings-systeem.. Minister Nadiem Anwar Makarim het bergen van historische voorwerpen is de eerste prioriteit. Maar nog steeds onduidelijk welk deel van het museum getroffen is door de uitslaande brand. De grote expositieruimte (EXHIBITION HALL; PUSAKA NUSANTARA HALL) uitgebrand
[translate: We should all be proud of the return of historical and cultural objects belonging to this nation (..) This repatriation process is inseparable from the good relations between Indonesia and the Dutch government]
*According to Pak / Mr Bonnie Triyana, the most workaholic person on the repatriation project between Indonesia - Netherlands, [at least] 4 statues of ARCA SINGOSARI are safe in the wake of a fire - blaze Museum Nasional / Indonesia Museum National. Posted 00.13 am Jakarta time / 7.13pm Amsterdam, around 4 hours after the fire started.
BACK TO ENGLISH AGAIN:
One of gigantic statues in Indonesia National Museum is ADITYAWARMAN / ADITYAVARMAN (was a King of old Minangkabau / Menangkabau), worried this statue might be one of “destroy” artifacts in the middle of a blaze tonight in Jakarta.
From the earliest times of the Minangkabau Empire one would expect a system of tantric-buddhist socio-political symbols. These would have existed of the sun, the moon and the cakra and for the three spheres of authority of a vajra (thunderbolt), a lotus and a conch. Alas, however we only have the statue of Adityavarman to provide us with useful data. Taking the skulls on which he is standing into account he is represented as a kind of (human) Mahakala. Indeed, he is standing on a lotus on which in Tantric Buddhism there usually is a disc representing the (full) moon. Also, we meet the monstruous head (Gorgoneion/Boma) of a chief commander on his belly and a dagger (not a vajra) as a symbol of armed authority in his hand.
Altogether however, these data are too few to be able to extrapolate a whole system of socio-political symbols. Adityawarman, a follower of Tantric Buddhism with ties to the Singhasari and Majapahit kingdoms of Java, is believed to have founded a kingdom in the Minangkabau highlands at Pagaruyung and ruled between 1347 and 1375, most likely to control the local gold trade. The establishment of a royal system seems to have involved conflict and violence, eventually leading to a division of villages into one of two systems of tradition, Bodi Caniago and Koto Piliang, the later having overt allegiances to royalty. By the 16th century, the time of the next report after the reign of Adityawarman, royal power had been split into three recognized reigning kings. They were the King of the World (Raja Alam), the King of Adat (Raja Adat), and the King of Religion (Raja Ibadat), and collectively they were known as the Kings of the Three Seats (Rajo Tigo Selo). The Minangkabau kings were charismatic or magical figures who received a percentage of gold mining and trading profits, but did not have much authority over the conduct of village affairs.
Back to return of artifacts.
4 (Four) statues from Java's Singosari temple (ARCA SINGOSARI), returned to Indonesia after 3 centuries in the Netherland, August 15th, 2023, just 2 days before Indonesia’s Independence Day this year. Three other statues from the same temple currently at Volkenkunde Museum Leiden may follow in the future. Another batch (maybe landed next November) 335 objects of the so-called Lombok treasure from Indonesia.
(*Hilmar Farid - Directorate Generale of Indonesia Education Ministry; Nadiem Anwar Makarim - Minister of Education; one of ARCA SINGOSARI)
The Netherlands start to return looted art to Indonesia. These are masterpieces that were stolen centuries ago. State secretary of Culture Gunay Uslu does not believe that The Netherlands can determine what will happen to the objects in the country of origin. July 6th, 2023, signed a handover for the return of 472 colonial artifacts from the Netherland to Indonesia at Volkenkunde Museum.
Indonesia has asked former colonial rulers the Netherlands, also (not former colonial ruler) India and Thai, to return several historical artifacts from its museums. Main purpose is to return the items and produce knowledge (enriched khazanah knowledge, enriched nationalism).
These are among the objects that will soon find their way from the collections of the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden (currently part of Wereldmuseum, which is formerly known as National Museum van Wereldculturen) and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to their countries of origin.
(*PRASASTI PUCANGAN / PUCANGAN INSCRIPTION, one of Indonesia artifact, in Kolkata India)
The Netherlands Secretary of State for Culture and Media Gunay Uslu made the return of the 472 objects, which is in line with the recommendations by the Advisory Committee on the Return of Cultural Objects from Colonial Context, chaired by Lilian Gonçalves-Ho Kang You, of October 2020. Uslu visited Indonesia last year heading a cultural mission, which included several meetings and conversations with the Indonesian repatriation committee chaired by I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja (former ambassador of Indonesia to the Netherlands).
In the press release by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences, Uslu stated: "This is a historic moment. It’s the first time we’re following the recommendations of the Committee to give back objects that should never have been brought to the Netherlands. But more than anything, it’s a moment to look to the future. We’re not only returning objects; we’re also embarking on a period of closer cooperation with Indonesia in areas like collection research, presentation and exchanges between museums."
From 1800 to 1949, Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands known as the Dutch East Indies, and an important source of wealth, thanks to the trade in spices, precious metals and minerals.
How and why various groups have sought to ‘unremember’, deflect or erase the 1945-1949 Indonesian Independence War from Dutch collective memory. In this war Indonesians were forced to fight when the Dutch sought to retake their former colony after the independence declaration on 17 August 1945. The war, otherwise known as the Indonesian Revolution, has gained increased attention in Dutch society in the last decade because of a series of court cases. The Dutch military information service presented a highly sanitized version of the war in films and in news reporting, such that no violence against Indonesians was shown and Dutch soldiers were represented as close to the people, especially to Indonesian children. The roles people with different relationships to the colonial past played in remembrance of decolonization, commenting at the same time on public responses to these works.
The Wereldmuseum and Rijksmuseum, who currently have these objects in their collections, then set into extensive research on the provenance of these objects, or how they ended up in the Netherlands, and in their collections. This provenance research of the objects from Indonesia has been done in close collaboration with the Indonesian repatriation committee researchers. This eventually resulted in the decision to return these 472 objects.
The transfer of ownership to Indonesia will take place at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden on 10 July. For other objects of which the return was requested - such as the Dubois collection (known for the ‘Java man’) remaining currently at Museum Naturalis and the Koran of the Indonesian resistance fighter Teukoe Oemar - a decision still has to be made by the Secretary of State Uslu.
=========END————
Thank you, as always, for reading. If you have anything like a spark file, or master thought list (spark file sounds so much cooler), let me know how you use it in the comments below.
If you enjoyed this post, please share it.
______________
If a friend sent this to you, you could subscribe here 👇. All content is free, and paid subscriptions are voluntary.
——————————————————————————————————
-prada- Adi Mulia Pradana is a Helper. Former adviser (President Indonesia) Jokowi for mapping 2-times election. I used to get paid to catch all these blunders—now I do it for free. Trying to work out what's going on, what happens next. Arch enemies of the tobacco industry, (still) survive after getting doxed. Now figure out, or, prevent catastrophic situations in the Indonesian administration from outside the government. After his mom was nearly killed by a syndicate, now I do it (catch all these blunders, especially blunders by an asshole syndicates) for free. Writer actually facing 12 years attack-simultaneously (physically terror, cyberattack terror) by his (ex) friend in IR UGM / HI UGM (all of them actually indebted to me, at least get a very cheap book). 2 times, my mom nearly got assassinated by my friend with “komplotan” / weird syndicate. Once assassin, forever is assassin, that I was facing in years. I push myself to be (keep) dovish, pacifist, and you can read my pacifist tone in every note I write. A framing that myself propagated for years.
(Very rare compliment and initiative pledge. Thank you. Yes, even a lot of people associated me PRAVDA, not part of MIUCCIA PRADA. I’m literally asshole on debate, since in college). Especially after heated between Putin and Prigozhin. My note-live blog about Russia - Ukraine already click-read 4 millions.
=======
Thanks for reading Prada’s Newsletter. I was lured, inspired by someone writer, his post in LinkedIn months ago, “Currently after a routine daily writing newsletter in the last 10 years, my subscriber reaches 100,000. Maybe one of my subscribers is your boss.” After I get followed / subscribed by (literally) prominent AI and prominent Chief Product and Technology of mammoth global media (both: Sir, thank you so much), I try crafting more / better writing.
To get the ones who really appreciate your writing, and now prominent people appreciate my writing, priceless feeling. Prada ungated/no paywall every notes-but thank you for anyone open initiative pledge to me.
(Promoting to more engage in Substack) Seamless to listen to your favorite podcasts on Substack. You can buy a better headset to listen to a podcast here (GST DE352306207).
Listeners on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or Pocket Casts simultaneously. podcasting can transform more of a conversation. Invite listeners to weigh in on episodes directly with you and with each other through discussion threads. At Substack, the process is to build with writers. Podcasts are an amazing feature of the Substack. I wish it had a feature to read the words we have written down without us having to do the speaking. Thanks for reading Prada’s Newsletter.
Wants comfy jogging pants / jogginghose amid scorching summer or (one day) harsh winter like black jogginghose or khaki/beige jogginghose like this? click
Headset and Mic can buy in here, but not including this cat, laptop, and couch / sofa.