Fadli: Repatriated artefacts with the Netherlands are in the packing stage

Jakarta — Culture Minister Fadli Zon said that artefacts repatriated with the Kingdom of the Netherlands are currently in the packing process. ‘The Dubois collection is currently in the packing stage, it should be. And because the quantity is very large, it is estimated this will reach 4-6 containers. And it will be shipped in one shipment but God willing will arrive next year,’ Fadli said in Jakarta on Tuesday. He emphasised that shipping costs are entirely borne by the Dutch government and are estimated to take about two months. As previously reported (2/10/25), Culture Minister Fadli Zon stated that as many as 28,131 fossils from the Eugene Dubois collection held in the Netherlands will arrive in Indonesia this year. ‘We actually hope it will arrive this year,’ the Minister told a press conference held in Jakarta at the time. Plans for the fossils, including the Homo erectus fossils or the so-called Java Man, will be exhibited with a different effort and narrative at the National Museum of Indonesia. ‘We will exhibit it here, perhaps in this room. But the narrative will be different; of course there are different ways of displaying it,’ he said. According to him, the Dubois fossils in the Netherlands are not simply displayed in museums, but he sees that the Dutch government is serious about caring for and handling the fossil artefacts.