Restitution policy in the Netherlands
In a context of colonial rule, cultural, historical and religious objects have been taken from their original owners. Looted, confiscated, or handed over or sold under duress. These cultural objects can also be found in the collections of cultural institutions in the Netherlands. Careful and just handling of these objects is of vital importance. To this end, a set of rules has been drawn up which together form the policy on returning objects.
The Dutch restitution policy* implementation operates along three lines:
- Cooperation with the countries of origin. This is an absolute prerequisite for careful handling of collections from a colonial context. Besides restitution, this also includes broad cooperation in the field of museums and collections. Among other things, in identifying objects in collections and conducting provenance research.
- Handling a request for the return of an object. The government official for Education, Culture and Science requests advice on this from the independent Advisory committee on the return of cultural and historical objects from a colonial context (in short: Colonial Collections Committee). The committee advises on the basis of provenance research provided by the institution managing the collection.
- Supporting provenance research. The responsibility for conducting provenance research lies with the institution managing the object. To support these institutions, parties with considerable expertise in the field of colonial collections have been brought together in the Colonial Collections Consortium. This consortium monitors the commitment to provenance research in museums and within academia in the Netherlands and internationally, it supports the museum sector in this research and provides countries of origin with information requested.
* The policy focuses on objects that are part of the Dutch State Collection. But the procedure is also open to requests about objects from (other) public owners. It is up to the current holders to decide whether they will make use of it.
Report and policy vision
In July 2020, Colonial Collection. A Recognition of Injustice was published, an advisory report on how to approach colonial collections. These recommendations were adopted in January 2021 in this policy vision (in Dutch): Beleidsvisie collecties uit een koloniale context. In July 2022, State Secretary Uslu informed the Parliament about the policy’s implementation, with the Kamerbrief over implementatie beleidsvisie collecties uit een koloniale context (in Dutch).