Indonesia has asked the Netherlands to hand back at least eight art pieces and natural history collections that were acquired during the colonial era, including the remains of a landmark hominid known as “Java Man.”
Identified as the first-ever example discovered of a Homo erectus, a forerunner of anatomically modern humans, “Java Man” is the centerpiece of an important collection at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden.
It comprises a femur and most of a cranium, discovered on the Indonesian island of Java by Dutch anatomist and geologist Eugene Dubois in 1891-1892, when Indonesia was still a colony of the Netherlands.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Asked about Jakarta’s request, Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science spokesman Jules van de Ven on Tuesday said Indonesia made the request “during the summer.”
Other pieces sought by Indonesia in the Dubois collection include the horse-riding reins of Prince Diponegoro, a Javanese royal who opposed Dutch colonial rule in the 19th century, and the so-called “Lombok treasure” of golden artifacts, the Dutch daily newspaper Trouw reported.
Van de Ven said a government-appointed commission would start a probe in December and make recommendations to Dutch State Secretary for Culture and Media Gunay Uslu, adding that he could not give a timeline for the work.
The Dutch government had “very constructive” discussions with their Indonesian counterparts, Ven added.
“Not only did we speak about returns, but also about cooperation in scientific studies and exhibitions,” he said.
The Naturalis museum told Trouw it “understood the Indonesian claim,” but was surprised that Indonesia viewed objects of natural history in a similar vein as historical artifacts.
The Java skull would not have been found if it was not for Dubois, it added.
Indonesia’s approach to its former colonial master follows that of African countries in pressing Britain, France, Germany and Belgium to return historic or cultural items that were looted during their rule.
In the past few years the Netherlands has started to grapple with the legacy of its colonialism in the former Dutch East Indies.
The archipelago declared its independence in August 1945 after being under Dutch rule for three centuries. Dutch recognition took place in 1949 after four years of bloody fighting.
The Netherlands apologized in February after a study found that the Dutch army used “systematic and extreme violence” during the independence war.
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
RSS