The Netherlands returns major fossil collection, including ‘Java Man’, to Indonesia

Audio By Carbonatix

THE HAGUE (Reuters) -The Netherlands said it would give back a major fossil collection to Indonesia, granting its former colony’s request to recover historical artefacts, including bones of the “Java Man”, the first known fossils of the Homo erectus species from which humans are believed to have evolved.

“At Indonesia’s request, the Netherlands is transferring more than 28,000 fossils from the Dubois collection … This collection is an important resource in research into human evolution,” the Dutch government said in a statement on Friday.

It added it had taken that decision following the advice of the independent Colonial Collections Committee and that the Dutch Culture Minister Gouke Moes had handed his Indonesian counterpart Fadli Zon a letter announcing the move.

Eugène Dubois was a Dutch paleoanthropologist and geologist. He earned worldwide fame for his discovery in 1891, on the Indonesian island of Java, remains of what he then called Pithecanthropus erectus – later redesignated as Homo erectus – and also known as “Java Man”.

In its statement, the Dutch government said the Colonial Collections Committee had come to the conclusion that the Dubois collection – currently in the university city of Leiden – never became the property of the Netherlands.

“In addition, the Committee considers that the circumstances under which the fossils were obtained make it plausible that they were taken against the will of the population and that the population was wronged by this,” it added.

It is the sixth time the Netherlands returns artefacts based on the recommendations of that Committee.

Western museums have traditionally resisted appeals to return objects to their countries of origin, which they often argue lack the necessary resources to care for the works.

But in recent years, many have started to return artefacts looted or removed during the colonial era to the countries of origin. In 2022 Germany and the Horniman Museum, based in London, handed back sculptures known as Benin Bronzes to Nigeria.

Two years ago, the Netherlands repatriated more than 200 artefacts to Indonesia.

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg and Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Alex Richardson)