The report calls for the creation of a body of experts to investigate objects’ provenance when requests are made, and a publicly accessible national database of all the colonial collections in Dutch museums. Image “What was stolen should be returned,” said Lilian Gonçalves-Ho Kang You, the chair of a committee that produced a restitution report for the Dutch government. Credit... Gero Breloer/Deutsche Presse Agentur, via Associated PressThe decision on whether to return an object, however, would ultimately rest with Dutch government. The Netherlands owns hundreds of thousands of objects that were acquired during the country’s colonial history. “But I’m worried about the execution.”A similar report commissioned by the French government shows that the path from ideas to action can be a long and winding one.

Source: International New York Times October 09, 2020 12:22 UTC