The Netherlands Returns Hundreds of Cultural Artifacts to Indonesia

Europe|The Netherlands Returns Hundreds of Cultural Artifacts to Indonesia

The Dutch government returned centuries-old stone Buddhist statues, a bejeweled serpentine armband and other looted artifacts to its former colony Indonesia on Friday, a rare example of cultural objects taken during colonialism making their way back home.

The Netherlands returned 288 items in a ceremony at the World Museum in Amsterdam, where the artifacts had been held. The repatriation is only the second by the Dutch since a 2020 report by a government advisory committee recommended returning art and other objects taken during four centuries of the country’s colonial era.

The report was part of the Netherlands reckoning with that legacy and involvement in slavery. The country was returning “objects that should never have been in the Netherlands,” Eppo Bruins, the minister of education, culture and science, said in a statement.

The exchange shows an evolving restitution process, after several former colonial powers in Europe pledged to return prized historical objects to countries in Africa, Asia and South America. Countries like France and Belgium, which have thousands of such treasures in public collections, have moved slowly, however, hindered by the arduous work of identifying, tracing and returning the often delicate objects.