National Museum's gold collection goes to Australia

National Museum's gold collection goes to Australia

JAKARTA (JP): For the first time, the National Museum's antique gold collection will be exhibited in Australia.

Indonesian Gold: Treasures from the National Museum, will be held in Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, from March 26 to May 16. It will then move to Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, from June 4 to Aug. 1.

"There will be 73 gold and silver pieces. The oldest one is a gold plated Buddha statue, found in Wonosobo, Central Java, which dates from the eighth century," head of the National Museum, Endang Sri Hardiyati, was quoted by Antara as saying.

She said the collections was insured for US$11,571,000.

"But this does not mean that the items are worth only that much. Historically, they are invaluable."

The director general of culture at the Ministry of Culture and Education, Edi Sedyawati, said the event was part of a series of overseas exhibitions of Indonesian arts and artifacts. Earlier events took place in Germany, Finland and Tokyo, and received warm responses from the audience.

She said Indonesia was organizing the exhibitions in an effort to improve its tarnished overseas image.

Gregson Edwards, Australia's cultural counselor here, said Indonesia's image in Australia had suffered, particularly from the series of riots across the country and the East Timor situation.

He said Australians were very curious about Indonesia "because geographically we are close".

Queensland Art Gallery will also host a series of films, lectures, workshops and children's activities during the exhibition. (sim)