Cultural Restitution
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Netherlands
Updated January 2025
Below is a schedule of restitutions made by the Netherlands to a country or community of source and other news relating to restitutions. Entries are updated regularly.
January 2025
Dutch institutions with objects collected during the colonial era from Suriname have contributed to an inventory prepared by the Colonial Collections Consortium
January 2025
The Wereldmuseum Leiden collection has agreed a request from the United States and the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo tribe in Texas to return seven objects removed in the 19th century
January 2025
A Papua New Guinea community has declined to recover five human skulls, collected by Roman Catholic missionaries and now in the Mission Museum in Limburg, because locals have no need for them
December 2024
A Mixtec human skull, purchased in the 1960s and part of the Dutch State Collection of Wereldmuseum Leiden, has been returned to Mexico
November 2024
Rotterdam has returned 68 looted artefacts to Indonesia, becoming the first city in the Netherlands to repatriate objects from its local collection
November 2024
Fifteen skulls from the Moluccas, discovered in the collection of Museum Vrolik, the anatomical museum of Amsterdam, have been returned to the Tanimbar archipelago
September 2024
The Dutch government has returned 288 cultural objects to its former colony Indonesia, including stone Buddhist statues and a serpentine armband
August 2024
Three ancient artefacts looted from Egyptian graves in 2014 and illegally exported have been returned to the Egyptian ambassador to the Netherlands
November 2023
Hundreds of Scythian gold artefacts from Crimea held in a Dutch museum for the last nine years have been returned to the Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine in Kiev
November 2023
The Netherlands will physically return the six Sri Lankan artefacts they committed to return in July 2023 during a two-day event at the Colombo National Museum
September 2023
The Netherlands does not seek the repatriation of 67 paintings looted by the French during the Napoleonic period
July 2023
The Dutch Government has agreed to return 472 cultural objects looted during the colonial era to Indonesia, together with a further six looted objects to Sri Lanka
June 2023
The Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam is criticised for pressing ahead with plans to exhibit items looted from Indonesia, including items a parliamentary majority has asked to repatriate
June 2023
Liberal Hoorn has called for an independent investigation into the provenance of art in the Westfries Museum and, in particular, objects collected from former colonies such as Indonesia
March 2023
The Netherlands has returned to the small Dutch Carribean island Sint Eustatius, also known as Statia, the remains of nine indigenous people excavated in 1984-89
December 2022
Leiden's Naturalis museum will return dozens of skeletons to the Malaysian state of Penang following a request from the Malaysian government
December 2022
Mexico's foreign ministry announces the return of 223 pre-Hispanic artefacts from the Netherlands as a result of "active cooperation" between the two nations
September 2022
Concerns are expressed by Bali foundation over Dutch plans to make explicit agreements about returning 'living' objects belonging to a specific community
September 2022
Dutch officials agree the return of hundreds of Indigenous artefacts to Panama, described as "the largest return of archaeological pieces in the history of Central America"
August 2022
Despite the announcement in July of an independent assessment committee, there are concerns that Dutch plans for the return of looted colonial objects have slowed down
February 2022
Two Dutch citizens have voluntarily returned 17 important archaeological artefacts from a variety of Indigenous groups at a ceremony at the Embassy of Mexico in the Netherlands
February 2022
The Dutch National Archives has requested an investigation into whether colonial collections in its possession should be returned to their country of origin
March 2021
Dutch government releases further details on ground-breaking restitution policy, which applies to items stolen from former Dutch colonies only
February 2021
Dutch government approval of plans to repatriate colonial artefacts places them in forefront of European efforts to return colonial-era acquisitions
October 2020
A Dutch advisory committee, set up by the culture ministry, recommends the return of colonial-era artefacts to their countries of source
March 2020
Forty-five years after agreeing its repatriation, a gold-inlaid dagger belonging to the "rebel prince", Prince Diponegoro, surrendered during Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia, has been returned to Jakarta
February 2020
An 18th century Ethiopian religious crown, stolen from a church in Cheleqot 21 years ago, has been returned to the Ethiopian government
January 2020
The return of 1,500 artefacts by the Dutch Government to Indonesia, four years after an agreement was reached, is the first time Indonesian objects taken to the Netherlands have been returned
November 2019
European police arrest 23 suspects from an international crime gang, responsible for trafficking thousands of Greek archaeological artefacts, looted over several years from the Calabria region in Italy
https://artdaily.cc/news/118455/European-police-bust-gang-looting-artifacts-in-Italy#.XdZqcTL7RsM
October 2019
Looted Ethiopian crown, probably stolen in the 1990s from a church in Cheleqot, resurfaces in the Netherlands
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/03/arts/design/ethiopian-crown.html
November 2018
A 6th cent Mosaic of Saint Mark, stolen from the occupied church of Panagia Kanakaria, Famagusta District, has been repatriated to Cyprus by the Netherlands
http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/movable/pdf/NEws.pdf
December 2016
Dutch police return 2nd cent marble bust of Roman Empress Giulia Domna to Italy, stolen
in 2013 from the Canopus Museum at the Villa Adriana (Tivoli)
https://en.unesco.org/news/giulia-domna-s-story-illicit-trafficking
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