Dutch firms fund restoration of archives museum
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)