Museum of Rotterdam to return puppets

Museum of Rotterdam to return puppets

JAKARTA: The World Museum of Rotterdam will return several
shadow puppets, which have been in its possession for at least 40
years, to city-owned Museum Wayang (shadow puppet museum), a city
official said over the weekend.

City Tourism and Museum Agency head Aurora Tambunan said that
the return of the puppets was part of a recent agreement made
between the Rotterdam administration and the agency recently in
the Netherlands.

"They will hand over 90 puppets out of a total of 180 puppets
since they want to ensure that we maintain them well. The
remaining 90 puppets will be sent next year," she said.

The hand-over ceremony is scheduled for Aug. 15.

According to her, the puppets, which depict figures from
Indonesia's struggle for independence from Dutch rule, were
bought by a art collector with the World Museum of Rotterdam from
a collector in Surakarta, Central Java in 1965.

Rotterdam is one of Jakarta's sister cities. --JP