Provenance research into colonial collections

This research project focuses on the two museums’ colonial collections of objects originating in Indonesia. Researchers from Indonesia will be involved in the project to contribute their regionally-sourced knowledge on the shared history of the two countries. The project will last several years.

On 10 April 2019, the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science Ingrid van Engelshoven announced that she will make resources available for this research.

The minister has also instructed the Dutch Council for Culture to form an authoritative independent advisory committee in September 2019. The first task of the committee will be to identify the historical, legal, international and moral aspects that are relevant for this research project of the colonial collections. The committee will present its conclusions to the minister in September 2020.

The research project conducted by the Rijksmuseum, the National Museum of World Cultures and the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies flows from the recognition that discussions on issues surrounding colonial art and restitution – which are high on the international as well as domestic agenda – would benefit from the development of a methodology for provenance research.

The National Museum of World Cultures recently announced that it would start implementing in practice a procedure through which museums can engage with applications for restitution in a prudent manner. This NMVW pilot project and the collaborative NIOD-RM-NMVW provenance research project will contribute to the development of a national policy framework for handling applications for restitution, which the minister discusses in her written statement to parliament.

Further reports on the NIOD-RM-NMVW research will be published following finalisation of the plans.

The written statement to parliament, containing a response to the article on looted art, can be downloaded here.