Thousands of historical stolen goods which were plundered during the colonialism in some countries are currently stored and kept in Dutch museum, Rijksmuseum. Lately, Dutch government now has announced to prepare a return of these goods to their origins. This decision is inspired by the decision made earlier by Germany and France. This kind of effort has begun after the issuance of Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art in 1998, which acts as an onset of the return of the booty from Nazi to the Jews during World War II.

The head of the Rijksmeseum, ValikaSmeulders, found this governmental decision the most appropriate thing to do, since keeping this all along is “historically wrong”. Nonetheless, detecting the initial owners of these booty is not easy, as said bySmeulders. Some conditions are impeding the investigation as well, such as researching the rightful owners.

"For instance, from those thousands of stolen goods, there is a diamond plundered from a sultanate in Indonesia. This 36 carat diamond was confiscated by Dutch army from Banjarmasin Sultanate in 1875. In this case, would you return it to the government or should you look for the Banjarmasin Sultanate descendant and return it to them? And who are entitled to talk with regarding this case?" explainsSmeulders.

The decision is fixed and the Dutch government just need time to sort things out and return the goods back to their places of origin.

Source: https://www.antaranews.com/berita/1782529/belanda-siap-kembalikan-benda-bersejarah-dari-daerah-bekas-jajahan#mobile-src