Sri Lanka multi-year programme

Following the submission by Sri Lanka of its claim for the restitution of the six objects, the decision to return them was made by the Dutch Secretary of State for Culture and Media. In the context of this restitution, the Consortium is working on a long-term multi-year knowledge exchange program in collaboration with the National Museum in Colombo.

To shape the multi-year programme, colleagues of Rijksmuseum and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) are in Sri Lanka to meet and exchange knowledge with museum staff, scholars and researchers.

A great wish from Sri Lanka is to organize, together with the Netherlands, specific courses and workshops in the country itself. This way you can respond to the circumstances and possibilities in Sri Lanka. For example, how to improve the preservation, management and accessibility of collections given the conditions and opportunities in Sri Lanka? And how can this be translated into educational material?

This multi-year program will be carried out in 2023-2025 under the flag of the International Heritage Cooperation Program.

For further information

View the news item: Colonial collections to be returned to Indonesia and Sri Lanka. More information on the objects, please visit Rijksmuseum to Return Colonial Objects from its Collection for the First Time