Heritage & illicit trade

This Dossier of the Royal Tropical Institute about the protection of cultural heritage and the problems of illegal excavations and illicit trade is not just a matter of providing information. It is also closely related to the work of both the Institute's Tropenmuseum and the Central Library. Museum and library keep objects and books that have been acquired over the past 150 years. They are documented and made accessible for research and exhibitions. Besides these collections of books, images and objects form the starting point for many forms of collaboration with partners in the Netherlands and all over the world. This raises questions about the interpretation and legitimicy of the historical collections, current acquisition policies, and support for the heritage sector in ‘source' countries for the illicit traffic.

Ethnographic collections

The Tropenmuseum and the Central Library of the Royal Tropical Institute were founded in 1864, as the Colonial Museum. The core of the historical collections were brought together as an aspect of Dutch colonialism in the East Indies and the West Indies. The wish to ‘learn' and the wish to ‘control' went together, and as a result many precious objects, often connected to religion, rituals, and power, were brought to the Netherlands. The history of these objects, their provenance and the meaning attached to them in former times, are well documented, supported by both the library collection and the historical photographs and maps. Today the institute sees it as a priority, to make the objects and books accesible for anyone who wants study and see them, either through the internet, or ‘life' in Amsterdam. This accessibility is a precondition to have the collections play their role as historical and cultural sources of the past -- as common heritage.

Such historical ethnographic collections rooted in the colonial past are not uncontested, and in some cases this leads to discussions about restitution, repatriation, exchange, duplication or other forms of change in ownership. The Royal Tropical Institute approaches these issues with an open mind. Our claim that these collections are a mutual heritage, or even belong to world heritage, should be meaningless, if in concrete cases, we would not enter into a debate. For this debate, the permanent exhibitions in the museum form the stage.

Acquisition policies

The Tropenmuseum is not the only ethnographic museum in the Netherlands that tries to further the case of the struggle against illicit traffic in ethnographic objects and archaeological finds. Together with the six other Dutch ethnographic museums, organized in the Stichting Volkenkundige Collectie Nederland, it has established an ethical committee. This committee supervises the collection policies of the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, the Museum of World Cultures in Rotterdam, Museum Nusantara in Delft, Africa Museum in Berg en Dal, Museon in The Hague, Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam and the ethnographic university collections in Groningen en Nijmegen. The ethical committee controls acquisition and loan policies of these museums. It sees to it that no object without a proper provenance which proves that the object has been outside the country of origin prior to 1970 or is exported with a licence, is acquired or temporarily put on display by one of these museums. Besides, this committee advises on matters related to restitution as well as the dealing with the museum collections of human remains.

Protection of collections

Listing and inventorizing objects is one of the best methods to prevent theft and illicit export from the source country. Therefore the Tropenmuseum supports museums in the South to improve the collection registration by entering objects and images in a computerized documentation system. This system starts from the so-called Object ID features, developed by the Getty Institute. Object ID makes sure that the ten key characteristics of an object are registered, together with a digital photograph. Such a registration of vulnerable objects allows a museum, in case of theft, to inform the police, customs, and Interpol or Scotland Yard, and to try and make it difficult for dealers to trade the object concerned.

This is only one tool in the struggle against illicit trade of objects of art, ethnography and archaeology. However, strengthening the museum infrastructure in countries that face serious illegal export, may help to better protect the collections. The Tropenmuseum approach is described in the 2005 bulletin by Jos van Beurden, Partnerships in cultural heritage. The international projects of KIT Tropenmuseum.

Publications

• Goden, graven en grenzen
• A Guide to Japanese Art Collections in the UK
• Bulletin 364 - Partnerships in cultural heritage

News

• Nigeria to retrieve stolen artifacts abroad
• Press release: The new armed conflict in the Middle East: In addition to the human tragedy, a cultural disaster
• New Release: A true-life thriller on illicit trade
• Article on Vigango research
• Metropolitan to return antiquities to Italy
• Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage to Enter into Force on 20 April 2006
• MUSEUM International (N°228)
• Iraqi cultural institutions and archaeological sites suffered major losses of priceless historical artifacts