The Nusantara Museum in the Netherlands has offered the return of 14,000 artefacts to Indonesia, allegedly because of the financial difficulties faced by the museum.

Dutch museum to return 14,000 artifacts to RI
Jakarta Post, 20 October 2015

The Indonesian government has received an offer by Nusantara Museum in Delft, the Netherlands, for the return of some 14,000 artifacts held by the museum, an official said on Monday.

“I have just received the letter this week,” the Education and Culture Ministry’s director general of culture, Kacung Marijan, said after opening a workshop on museums on Sunday evening in Yogyakarta.

Based on the information, he said the collection would be returned to Indonesia because the museum was facing financial difficulties.

The 100-year-old museum was the only one in the Netherlands dedicated to collecting artistic and cultural artifacts from Indonesia, a country that the Netherlands colonized for 350 years. Noted fable puppeteer Ki Ledjar Soebroto of Yogyakarta was frequently invited to perform at the museum.

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