Date: Wednesday 1 October
Time: 10:00 – 17:00
Location: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, Smallepad 5, Amersfoort
Organisation: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed en Nederlandse Kastelenstichting
Voertaal: Dutch
The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) and the Dutch Foundation for Castles (NKS) are organising a meeting on the shared past and joint future of castles and country houses. Together with experts, and the audience, they explore and discuss the heritage of castles and country houses, as part of the colonial past and the past of slavery. This meeting takes place on 1 October, 2025.
During the meeting, the presence and (in)visibility of traces of the slavery past are discussed, through practical case studies and recent research counducted at country estates. Additionally, the Colonial Collections Datahub is presented as a new digital research tool. The program allows space for different perspectives on the continuation of the colonial and the slavery past, and furthermore includes performances, spoken word and poetry.
SAHRA Heritage Month 2025: International Virtual SeminarDate: Thursday 18 September 2025
Time: 09:00 – 17:00
Location: Online
Organisation: South African Heritage Resources Agency
Language: English
As part of the SAHRA Heritage Month 2025, the South African Heritage Resources Agency is hosting a series of virtual seminars. This year’s webinar, under the theme ‘Resilient Heritage: Safeguarding South Africa’s Legacy in a Changing Climate,’ takes place over four days in a fully virtual format. The program aligns with broader G20 theme of Climate Change and Resilience, reflecting the commitment to engaging with global conversations on sustainability, climate adaptation, and cultural preservation.
On 18 September, the SAHRA will in particular focus on colonial collections and restitution, during the webinar ‘Restitution of Cultural Property’, bringing together global voices to explore pathways for return, protection, and circulation of cultural heritage. This dialogue will reflect on international best practices, highlight Africa’s experiences in restitution, and consider how G20 collaboration can strengthen policy, diplomacy, and ethical stewardship to include voluntary disclosures by the host/holding countries. By engaging experts, governments, and heritage practitioners, the webinar seeks to advance a shared commitment to justice, reconciliation, and sustainable cultural heritage management.
The full programme of this virtual seminar is available below.
Grant awarded to eleven museums for provenance research into colonial collections10 September 2025
The Provenance Research Scheme by the Colonial Collections Consortium contributes to eleven museums that will investigate the provenance history of their (sub)collection or a specific object for which there are indications that it was acquired in a colonial context. The Provenance Research Scheme made a total of €500.000 available for such research. In this second round of applications, €256.683 has been awarded. The second round was the last round for the Provenance Research Scheme.
Awarded projects
Read more about the awarded projects of the second round below.
Beeld en Geluid (€24.000)
Beeld en Geluid is conducting research into three Sticusa-films (Stichting Culturele Samenwerking Suriname en de Nederlandse Antillen/Foundation for Cultural Cooperation) from the 70s, to indicate their provenance and context. The films will be returned to the people in Suriname and the Antilles, and will be made available for education, so they can serve as a tool for reflection and dialogue about (post)colonial relations.
Universiteit Leiden (€10.000)
Prof. dr. Ben Arps (Leiden University) conducts provenance research into eleven unique maps from Java, from 1825. They depict the districts of the regency of Semarang and are currently part of the collection of the National Archives. Their creators, purpose, and journey to Europe are unknown. Analysis of style, language, and context should reveal their provenance and shed new light on their colonial heritage.
Universiteitsmuseum Groningen (€13.749)
The Universiteitsmuseum Groningen conducts provenance research into the sub-collections of Gerardus van der Leeuw, in particular, religious and ritual objects from missionary and colonial networks. The project focuses on unknown provenance, ethical acquisition, and the context of collections, in addition to digital access and publication of the findings to science and the public.
Boijmans van Beuningen (€30.000)
Boijmans van Beuningen conducts provenance research into the sub-collection of Dr. Johan C.J. Bierens de Haan (1883-1958), the objects were collected from Tibet, China, Iran and Japan (1909-1920). The research focuses on the context of collection, the political situation of the region and the possibly problematic provenance of the objects.
Rijksmuseum Boerhaave (€27.360)
Rijksmuseum Boerhaave researches the sub-collection of Jan van der Hoeven (1801-1868), in which his scientific work and colonial context are visible. The research focuses on the provenance of zoological and physical-anthropological collections, including objects and portraits, and explores how the Dutch colonial expansion shaped his scientific activities.
De Mesdag Collectie (van Gogh Museum) (€23.980)
This project conducts research into circa 80 Indonesian objects that are suspected to have been acquired from a colonial context, such as temple and ancestral statues, weapons, and architectural fragments. The goal is to trace their provenance, reconstruct the context of removal, and identify possible restitution claims, using experts and specialist provenance research.
Keramiekmuseum het Princessehof (€30.000)
This project conducts research into circa 80 Indonesian objects that are suspected to have been acquired from a colonial context, such as temple and ancestral statues, weapons, and architectural fragments. The goal is to trace their provenance, reconstruct the context of removal, and identify possible restitution claims, using experts and specialist provenance research.
Zaans Museum (€18.170)
The Zaans Museum conducts research into eighteenth- and nineteenth-century clothing made out of chintz to establish the colonial provenance of the fabrics. By making a distinction between Indian and European chintz, insights are given into production, trade routes of the VOC and the role of these clothes in the Zaan identity.
Museum Catharijneconvent (€20.000)
Museum Catharijneconvent researches the colonial context of mission objects. The project studies inculturation, colonial provenance of materials, and ownership, with attention to local creators and power relations. This is intended to give insight into cultural exchange, religious influence, and the connections between Christianity and European colonialism.
Allard Pierson (€29.986)
Het Allard Pierson researches the Houbolt-collection. These objects were collected from Indonesia, New Guinea, and Malaysia. The project explores in what ways the objects were collected, by whom, and under which circumstances. Additionally, the project explores whether the objects present a case of involuntary loss, in collaboration with the Universitas Gadjah Mada.
Missiemuseum Steyl (€29.436)
Missiemuseum Steyl conducts research into objects of the collection of the Mission Sisters of the Servants of the Holy Spirit. This research focuses on a Japanese Buddhist household shrine. By tracing the provenance, the project aims to give insights into the connection between imperialism, missionary work, and colonialism and to contribute to the decolonization discussions outside of museum and national collections.
Provenance research blog #2
In the bimonthly blog series of the Colonial Collections Consortium, we present a historical object from a former colonial context or situation, currently stored in a museum in the Netherlands that has been the focus of provenance research. With this blog, we want to give an insight of the importance of provenance research and show the different ways of approaching this type of research. Therefore, each blog explains the steps taken by the respective museum or provenance researcher to carry out the research. Which stories lie behind the object and what can they tell us about the Dutch colonial past?
In focus this time: seven Tigua sacred ‘objects’ of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo community, United States.
Brief historical background
The Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (or YDSP) is a federally recognized Native American tribe in El Paso, Texas. The Tigua people (pronounced Tiwa) of YDSP were deeply impacted by Spanish and later US colonialism. In 1680, following a revolt against Spanish rule, they were forcibly relocated from New Mexico to Texas. In the nineteenth century, they, like many other Native American tribes, were driven to extreme poverty due to the appropriation of their land and resources by both the US and state governments. It was in this context of duress that the objects were bought in 1882 by the Dutch anthropologist Herman Frederik Carel Ten Kate jr., during an expedition to study Native Americans. This acquisition was done at the request of Lindor Serrurier, the then director of the National Ethnographic Museum (a precursor of Wereldmuseum Leiden), using Dutch government funding.
In 2024, the YDSP Pueblo, with the support of the US government, submitted a restitution request to the Dutch government. In question were five (and ultimately seven) objects managed by Wereldmuseum Leiden. This request argued that since these are ceremonial and spiritually important representations of the culture and faith of the Pueblo, they should be returned. Following this request, Wereldmuseum carried out provenance research about the objects, leading to the conclusion that their transfer to the Netherlands and this museum in 1883 represented a case of involuntary loss.
About the Tigua ceremonial ‘objects’
The seven objects – the fragment of a headdress, two drums and respective drumsticks, three rattles, a shield, and moccasins – constitute sacred, communally owned belongings of the Tigua people of YDSP. Of particular importance are the double-headed drum and drumstick, which is believed to be the twin of the Pueblo’s remaining ceremonial drum. According to tradition, both were made from the same tree 350 years ago in New Mexico, before the Tigua’s exile to El Paso. The restitution claim of 2024 noted the drum’s importance to the ceremonial cycle and its connection to the Winter clan (now the Pumpkin and Corn villages), while the remaining drum belonged to the Summer clan. Without the Winter clan’s drum, the Summer clan’s drum is used for both summer and winter dances.
The current “restitutionary conjuncture”
The Tigua’s first official request for repatriation was made by the Tribal Council of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo in 2014, although the Tribal Council claims there were earlier requests, dating back to 1967. This request was rejected by Wereldmuseum on the basis that the objects had been legally sold. While several meetings and negotiations between the Tribal Council and the museum followed this decision, effective change only took place in 2024.
In recent years, important steps have been taken in the Netherlands and beyond towards the development of restitution policies, making it possible to speak of the current moment as a “restitutionary conjuncture”, to quote provenance researcher Klaas Stutje (2025). More specifically, in 2021, the Dutch government published its policy vision on collections from a colonial context, followed in 2022 by a Letter to Parliament on its implementation. Since then, a few hundred historical objects have been returned, mainly to Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
The provenance research
Following the 2024 restitution request, the Wereldmuseum conducted provenance research on the Tigua’s sacred artefacts. The research and resulting report focused on 1) the history of the YDSP to better understand the context during which the objects had been collected; 2) Ten Kate’s expedition to North America in 1882-83, to understand the role played by the Dutch government and museum in this expedition, as well as the anthropologist’s collecting practices; 3) Ten Kate’s visit to YDSP and the seven objects; and 4) the history of the relationship between Wereldmuseum and Pueblo.
The first point was answered mainly using secondary resources. The second and third points involved analysing the correspondence related to the financing by the Dutch government of the purchase of objects by Ten Kate and his donation of those objects to the museum in 1883. The museum’s inventory cards and a travel report by Ten Kate included important information that detailed Ten Kate’s use of unethical acquisition methods, involving coercion, threats and bribery. His travel report mentioned the objects and suggested that the sale by War Captain Bernardo Holguin had not been entirely voluntary, since on the following day, Holguin expressed remorse about this sale and tried to reverse the transaction.
Information shared by representatives of YDSP in the context of recent dialogues with Wereldmuseum and the 2024 restitution claim also offered vital information about the acquisition context, leading to a more critical and context-sensitive understanding of the conditions in which the objects were taken. Of particular importance were the arguments that Holguin had been coerced by Ten Kate to sell the objects, that his willingness to sell sacred communal artefacts was due to the extreme poverty experienced in YDSP at the time, and that Holguin was in fact not authorized to sell these since he didn’t own then but rather managed them for the community. This information was central to the final decision regarding the restitution claim.
Reflection
The provenance research showed that the acquisition of the objects in 1882 was against the wishes of YDSP, even if it resulted from the sale of the items by a member of the community. Dialogue with the community in more recent years – and mainly in the context of the restitution requests – reiterated this fact and emphasized the ongoing importance of these objects to the Tigua’s ceremonies and rituals. This reexamination of the historical context in which the objects were acquired offers an important example of how complex it is to accurately assess the conditions and power (dis)balances in place when objects are collected or seized, without disregarding the agency of the original owners. Crucially, it shows that provenance research and a critical understanding of historical and cultural circumstances should, as much as possible, result from an open and reciprocal dialogue between museums and the communities of origin.
Final words
In response to the restitution request by the US and YDSP, and on the advice of the independent Colonial Collections Committee (in line with the Dutch Policy vision on collections from a colonial context), the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science Eppo Bruins decided in early 2025 to return the seven objects unconditionally. A ceremony to mark this return took place on 20 March 2025 at Wereldmuseum Leiden (see photograph).
To better understand the historic and current meanings of objects, and how to ethically care for them, information about their origin and acquisition histories are essential. Provenance research is an ongoing process for museums. The Colonial Collections Consortium supports institutions that manage collections with this work by sharing knowledge and information, and by offering stakeholders a network. Would you like to know more or share information with us? Please contact us!
References and further reading
The provenance research presented here was carried out by provenance researcher François Janse van Rensburg (Wereldmuseum). The report and the advice of the independent Colonial Collections Committee can be found here. The information presented in this blog derives from this report, as well as email communication with François Janse van Rensburg. More information about the return of the seven objects can be found on the websites of the Dutch government and of Wereldmuseum. For more information about the Dutch policy for dealing with collections from a colonial context, please see the website of the Colonial Collections Consortium.
On 15 July 2025, the second round of applications for the ‘Regeling Herkomstonderzoek Koloniale Collecties,’ was closed. The assessment committee will gather shortly to assess all the received applications.
Members of the assessment committee:
- Mirjam Hoijtink, Head of Research & Collections, Wereldmuseum
- Karel Weener, provenance researcher, History Department, Rijksmuseum
- Klaas Stutje, senior researcher affiliated with the Expertise Center Restitution, NIOD Institute for War-, Holocaust- and Genocide Studies.
- Pauljac Verhoeven, director, Museum Bronbeek
On 15 March 2025, the first round of applications for the ‘Regeling Herkomstonderzoek Koloniale Collecties,’ was closed. The assessment committee will gather shortly to assess all the received applications.
Members of the assessment committee:
- Mirjam Hoijtink, Head of Research & Collections, Wereldmuseum
- Karel Weener, provenance researcher, History Department, Rijksmuseum
- Klaas Stutje, senior researcher affiliated with the Expertise Center Restitution, NIOD Institute for War-, Holocaust- and Genocide Studies.
- Pauljac Verhoeven, director, Museum Bronbeek
In September, the first two fellows of the NIAS-NIOD-KITLV Moving Objects, Mobilising Culture in the Context of (De)colonisation start their research projects. The fellowship enables researchers and heritage professionals from former colonized countries to conduct five months of research into ‘colonial collections’: objects and collections from those countries that arrived in the Netherlands in a context of colonialism. NIOD is involved in the fellowships as partner of the Colonial Collections Consortium..
The first two fellows, Caroline Fernandes Caromano and Nadia Aït Saïd-Ghanem start their research in September 2024. In February 2025, the next two fellows, Panggah Ardiyansyah and Theo Frids Hutabarat, are welcomed. Below, you can find more information about the fellows and their research projects.
Caroline Fernandes Caromano – (Re) Interweaving past and present
Caroline Fernandes Caromano is a Brazilian archeologist with academic degrees from the University of São Paulo and the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). She has been a research fellow at the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology of the University of São Paulo, the Museum Emilio Goeldi (Brazil), Leiden University, the Research Center for Material Culture, and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center (the Netherlands).
Project description
At NIAS, Caroline will revisit artworks from the period of the Dutch colonial administration in Brazil constructing a transatlantic dialogue with Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian artisans from the State of Maranhão, the last frontier conquered by the Dutch. Using basketry as a point of discussion on the peoples and material culture portrayed by Eckhout, Post, and others, the research inquires how baskets can shed light on the historical representations of marginalized segments of the Brazilian population and their political agency in the past and present. By amplifying the voices of artisans from small communities in Maranhão to the interior of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences, the research proposes to create a space for interpretation and recontextualization of the artworks based on Quilombola and Indigenous epistemologies.
Nadia Aït Saïd-Ghanem – Cuneiform tablets in Dutch museums and the Iraqi-French antiquities dealer Ibrahim Elias Gejou
Dr Nadia Aït Saïd-Ghanem is a provenance researcher and cuneiformist. She is a graduate of SOAS, University of London, UK, where she studied Akkadian, Sumerian, and Arabic, and obtained her PhD (Department of the Near and Middle East). Her primary research interests are cuneiform, Arabic grammatical theory, and the purchase of Iraq’s tangible heritage by museums in Europe and America from antiquities dealers. Since her British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (2019-2023), she has been investigating Iraqi antiquities dealers’ correspondence preserved in museum archives to write the provenance history of archaeological artefacts from Iraq, primarily cuneiform tablets, purchased from these dealers by museums between 1884 (the year in which the Ottoman Antiquities Law forbade the exportation of such objects) and WW1.
Project description
As a NIAS-NIOD-KITLV Fellow, Dr Aït Saïd-Ghanem will focus on cuneiform tablets sold to Dutch museums by the antiquities dealer and smuggler Ibrahim Elias Gejou before and after Iraq’s Antiquities Law of 1936. This study is based on correspondence between Gejou and curators of Dutch museums, held in Dutch archives today.
Panggah Ardiyansyah – Evocative Fragments: Archaeological Knowledge Production for Sendang Duwur and Its Dispersed Objects
Panggah Ardiyansyah wants to understand why an Islamic site has been marginalised (or not) within Indonesian archaeology, despite the fact that the majority of the population in Indonesia is Muslim.
Project description
The research aims to deconstruct the knowledge production of Sendang Duwur, a 16th-century Islamic complex in East Java, Indonesia. In doing so Panggah Ardiyansyah wants to contribute to the developing scholarship on heritage politics in relation to identity formation, inclusion/exclusion and frameworks of restitution.
The project activities are divided into three parts: tracing the relationships between historical figures involved in the circulation of Sendang Duwur manuscripts, reconstructing the interventions of the Archaeological Service of the Dutch East Indies at Sendang Duwur in the first half of the 20th century, and outlining the entangled movements of manuscripts and artefacts associated with the site.
Theo Frids Hutabarat – Reimagining Pustaha
How can the pustaha be connected to the common Batak people today? Could the knowledge in the pustaha be applied to local environmental activism? Is it possible to comprehend the pustaha through artistic means?
Project description
Theo Frids Hutabarat’s project focuses on the Batak manuscripts known as pustaha and how museums in the Netherlands take care of them. He aims to study the life of these manuscripts in their current setting, far from their origin in Sumatra, Indonesia. By creating a local network that connects with the institutions housing these manuscripts, Hutabarat plans to swap certain care methods with other methods, causing a ‘glitch’ in the existing care system.
Using a collaborative approach, the project seeks to deepen the understanding of the past by exploring Batak spirituality, not just focusing on ancestors and rituals but also on political, social, and environmental histories. Pustaha are viewed as vital for rebuilding the spiritual world of the Batak people within new societal frameworks.
The project will reflect on how pustaha are interpreted (or not) and to reimagine them as a lived experience in living communities. This research aims to start the long process of reconnecting the manuscripts and their knowledge back to the Batak people.
During this interdisciplinary symposium, the Grotius Centre for Legal Studies and the Research Group ‘Museums, Collections and Society‘ from Leiden University, will focus on the changing approaches towards the restitution of objects from a colonial context. The aim is to look beyond individual country approaches and ethical policies to explore what comparative lessons can be learned from different contexts regarding the treatment of cultural objects and/or human remains.
Date: 23 – 24 May 2024
Time: 09:30 AM – 17:00 PM (CET)
Language: English
Location: Wereldmuseum and Leiden University
Organizers: Grotius Centre for Legal Studies and the Research Group ‘Museums, Collections and Society’
The concept of decolonising the museum, means different things in different parts of the world. ICOM, the International Council of Museums, established a Working Group on Decolonisation. During this conference on 17 June 2024, the Working Group will share experiences from their daily practice, offering a broad variety of perspectives.
Speakers from Barbados, Benin, Canada, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Taiwan and Zambia, as well as from European countries, will shed light on what decolonisation means for their work. Discussions will include how to decolonize archival and artifact collections, how to work with diaspora communities and Indigenous peoples to reconcile colonial histories and how to renew conventional colonial museums and unpack colonial legacies.
Date: 17 June 2024
Time: 09:30 AM – 4:30 PM (CET)
Language: English
Location: Amersfoort (the Netherlands) and online
Organizers: Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, in collaboration with ICOM, ICOM Netherlands, DutchCulture and UNESCO NL
On 27 May 2024, MAS and FARO are organizing a seminar on provenance research concerning heritage from a colonial context. During this seminar, practical experience is combined with theoretical background to discuss provenance research into heritage from a colonial context and related topics, such as digital restitution and collaboration with communities of origin. In addition, the results of the MAS-project concerning provenance research into the museum’s Congolese collection will be presented during the seminar.
Date: 27 May 2024
Time: 09:30 AM – 4:00 PM (CEST)
Speakers: Lies Busselen (KU Leuven), Randy Kalemba and Pauline Malenga (Intellectuele Congolese Kring), Vicky Van Bockhaven (Ghent University), Camiel de Kom (Colonial Collections Consortium), and more.
Language: Dutch
Location: MAS, Hanzestedenplaats 1, Antwerp
Organizers: MAS and FARO