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(Rijksmuseum) |
The Netherlands stated Thursday it can hand again a whole lot of colonial-era artifacts to Indonesia and Sri Lanka, together with a haul of treasure and a gem-encrusted bronze cannon.
The choice to return some 478 objects adopted suggestions by a government-appointed fee final 12 months wanting into unlawful Dutch colonial acquisitions now being displayed in museums within the Netherlands.
“These suggestions are a milestone in coping with collections from a colonial context,” stated Gunay Uslu, Dutch deputy minister for tradition, training and science.
The fee was arrange after a request by Indonesia for the return of some artwork items and pure historical past collections by its former colonial ruler the Netherlands.
Among the gadgets to be handed again embody the so-called “Lombok treasure” of a whole lot of golden and silver objects, looted by the Dutch colonial military after capturing the Cakranegara palace on Indonesia’s Lombok island in 1894.
It additionally included a bronze cannon adorned with silver, gold and valuable gems together with rubies.
The 18th-century “Lewke’s cannon” is believed to have been a present by a Sri Lankan aristocrat known as Lewke Disava to the king of Kandy round 1745-46.
It’s believed to have fallen into Dutch palms in 1765 when Dutch troops led by the governor of Ceylon Lubbert Jan van Eck attacked and conquered Kandy.
After being displayed across the Netherlands, the cannon was finally added to the Rijksmuseum’s assortment in Amsterdam.
Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits stated the “restitution as a optimistic step in cooperation with Sri Lanka.”
“The connection and exchanges of information constructed up between the 2 nations within the fields of analysis and customary historical past represent a robust basis for the long run,” he added in an announcement.
The fee will hand down choices about different artifacts sooner or later, public broadcaster NOS stated.
This included artwork from Nigeria in addition to the Dubois assortment which included the horse-riding reins of Prince Diponegoro, a Javanese royal who opposed Dutch colonial rule within the nineteenth century.
The Netherlands has been wrestling with the legacy of its colonial previous in recent times.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander on Saturday issued a historic royal apology for the Netherlands’ involvement in colonial-era slavery. (AFP)
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