“The 1975 agreement has been resumed in the last two years. This is progress and Indonesia should be more proactive.”
Indonesia has recently received data on 2,500 items from the Dutch and each item has to be first researched for its provenance, Sri said.
“We are selective because it has to be gradual. We will prioritize those that have important historical value.”
The priority objects mainly include artifacts from Indonesia’s Hindu period and royal regalia that contain important knowledge on the history of the archipelago.
Hilmar Farid, director-general of culture at Indonesia’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, said that there were more collections that Jakarta wanted to reclaim from the Netherlands, including the Java Man.
The Indonesian government had not set a specific timeline for the return of the historical objects, Hilmar said.
