Kiev. Ukraine. Ukraine Gate – February 11, 2021 – International News
The Dutch government will return cultural objects of the colonial period to the countries from which they were exported. This decision was made on the basis of recommendations from experts from the country’s leading museums.
In 2020, experts published a report stating that among the exhibits of the largest museums in the Netherlands are hundreds of thousands of objects, probably stolen from the former colonies. Among the exhibits – art objects, jewelry, religious and historical sites.
Experts recommended recognizing the historical injustice and returning these artifacts to the former colonies. In turn, the government-supported this initiative, saying that in the colonial era, cultural objects were actually stolen. Minister of Education, Culture and Science Ingrid van Engelshoven stressed that there is no place in the state collection of the Netherlands for cultural heritage objects obtained as a result of theft. Therefore, if the country wants to return them, the Netherlands will return them.
It is now known that the government intends to work with representatives of Indonesia, Suriname, and the Netherlands in the Caribbean to investigate colonial-era collections and identify stolen artifacts.
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