The famous ‘diament of Banjarmasin’ that was stolen from the Sultan of Banjarmasin in 1859 by the Dutch colonial rule, goes back to Indonesia. In August, NRC revealed that Indonesia had submitted an official request for return to the Netherlands at the end of 2025, after investigation commissioned by the Dutch Colonial Collections Commission irrefutable determined in 2022 that the gemstone had been stolen.
In addition to the diamond, the Netherlands returns nineteen other cultural objects that were taken away through robbery or coercion during the colonial period. Such as a traditional sword from Aceh, a handwritten Quran, six seventeenth-century Javan ritual scrolls and tombstones with Arabic calligraphy. Eighteen objects were so far in the possession of the World Museum, two were of the Rijksmuseum.
During a ceremony on 9 October 2026 at the Indonesia House in Amsterdam Fadli Zon, the Indonesian Minister of Culture and Rianne Letschert, the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) signed two Transfer Agreements concerning the repatriation of the Dubois Collection and 20 Indonesian cultural objects. This marked the first time that Transfer Agreements for the repatriation of Indonesian cultural objects from the Netherlands were signed at ministerial level. Four important objects from the Dubois Collection have already been transferred to Indonesia
The rest of the objects will remain in the Netherlands for the coming months. “Today is the legal transfer”, says Marieke van Bommel, director of the World Museum. “In the coming months, the objects will be packed and all papers will be made in order for transport to Indonesia”
It is expected that a battle for the ownership of the diamond will erupt in Indonesia. The government wants to include the gemstone in the national collection, descendants of the sultan want it to be transferred to their palace. They see the state’s claim as a new injustice after the robbery of Dutch colonial rule, almost two centuries earlier.
