Ten museums delve into the provenance of colonial objects

One year after the closing of the first round of the Regeling Herkomstonderzoek Colonial Collections, the research projects of the ten institutions that were awarded funding are in full swing. This funding scheme allows Dutch institutions managing collections to research the provenance of objects collected from colonial contexts, as a core task of careful and transparent collection management. The Colonial Collections Consortium, as provider of this subsidy, made available a total of €500.000, of which more than €240.000 was awarded to ten projects in the first round.

The awarded institutions show a broad cross section of the museum field, ranging from institutions managing state collection to municipalities, universities and private collections. They research the provenance of subcollections and specific objects that are suspected to have been collected from a colonial context. For example, Museon-Omniversum is researching a ‘banjabangi’, a rare wooden bench from Suriname that was historically used as a percussion instrument and is seen as a symbol of colonial power relations and resistance. Missiemuseum Steyl is focusing on an honorary carpet with Baxian-motives from Yanggu (China) which was taken in 1901 by missionaries under unclear circumstances. Kunstmuseum Den Haag received funding for research into, among other things, the eighteenth-century court silverware of the Sultan of Ternate, currently part of their collection of precious metals.

These are only some examples of the projects that will soon be finished. The results will be shared in provenance reports, publications, public events and exhibitions. Curious about the rest of the projects? You can find more information here.

The Colonial Collections Consortium – a partnership between Museum Bronbeek, NIOD, Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, Rijksmuseum and Wereldmuseum – supports provenance research financially and substantively, by offering a network and exchanging knowledge. In doing so, the Consortium contributes to a careful handling of colonial collections and collaboration with communities of origin.