Dutch firms fund restoration of archives museum
JAKARTA (JP): A group of Dutch companies has raised US$3 million to finance the restoration of the 18th century building that now houses the Museum of National Archives.
The money was raised by the Indonesian Gift Foundation, an organization founded last year with the intention of presenting a gift to mark Indonesia's 50th independence anniversary.
"We finally decided to use the fund for renovating the museum, which will later be used also as a center of historical study of the VOC in Indonesia," Eric Hammerstein, vice chairman of the foundation. told reporters on Saturday.
The VOC was the Dutch East Indies trading consortium set up in the early 17th century which later controlled a big part of what is now Indonesia before the nation's independence in 1945.
Hammerstein was speaking during a presentation on the restoration project for the museum on Jl. Gajah Mada, Central Jakarta, held by the National Archives for the benefit of the donors, the media and other invited guests.
More than 60 Dutch companies have pledged to fund the project. They include giant names like KLM, Dutch Telecom, ABN MR Bank, Phillips, Unilever, Shell, Stork, Dutch Electric Company and Heineken, he said. "The amount of funds raised will surely suffice the project of the renovation," he told The Jakarta Post.
The museum is currently in very bad shape, with its roof leaking in various places, wood panels decaying, wall plaster falling, and many floor tiles missing.
Noerhadi Magetsari, the director general of the National Archives Agency, said in his presentation that the building will be restored, as far as possible, to its original condition when it was built in 1760.
He said no decision had been made about whether or not to demolish the adjacent buildings that were built in the 1940s.
The building is currently about one-half meter lower than the street level of Jl. Gajah Mada, and this means that even a light drizzle will cause the garden and parts of the building to be inundated by water, Noerhadi said.
The restoration is a joint project involving the foundation, the Indonesian-Netherlands Forum and the National Archives Agency.
Han Awal, the Indonesian architect hired to run the project, said the restoration will cost Rp 5.2 billion (US$2.2 million).
Work begins in March and should take one-and-a-half years, said Han Awal, whose previous work includes the restoration of the Jakarta Cathedral and the Immanuel Church, both in Central Jakarta.
The museum building is unique and is the "pearl" of Jakarta, he said.
Hammerstein recalled that Dutch Queen Beatrix, during her visit to Indonesia last year, had supper in the museum.
She later witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Indonesian Gift Foundation, represented by Hammerstein, and Frans Seda, the chairman of the Indonesia- Netherlands Forum.
The building was originally owned by a rich Dutch trader named Reiner de Klerk, who became governor general of the Dutch East Indies in 1777-1780, according to the National Archives.
In 1844, the building was used for an orphanage, and the property was sold towards the end of the century to the Dutch East Indies government.
The building then housed the Mining and Land level Institution, and in 1925 it became the Countries Archives. When Indonesia became independent, the building housed the national archives.
Because of the deteriorating condition of the building, the national archives have been moved to a new office in Kemang subdistrict, South Jakarta. (16)