RI seeks to regain artifacts from Dutch

RI seeks to regain artifacts from Dutch

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian embassy in the Netherlands is
currently trying to retrieve artifacts which are considered
national heritage from Dutch museums, Antara reported yesterday.

The news agency quoted Indonesia's ambassador to The Hague,
Soedarmanto Kadarisman, as saying that initiatives to retrieve
particular artifacts should be initiated by Indonesia's
provincial governments.

"The first move is for the provincial administration to write
to the embassy," Soedarmanto said in Padang, West Sumatra, where
he was accompanying Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands during a
visit there.

The embassy would follow up such requests through diplomatic
channels, he added.

Soedarmanto said he had found that museums in the Netherlands
possess artifacts from Indonesia, and that some of are of a kind
that can no longer be found in Indonesia.

He added, however, that determining the legal status of such
artifacts would require extensive studies in Indonesia. He said
it was necessary to determine whether a given artifact had been
legally purchased or had been appropriated during the Dutch
colonial era. (emb)