Rijksmuseum laments Dutch failure to return stolen colonial art

Title: Rijksmuseum laments Dutch failure to return stolen colonial art
Author: Daniel Boffey
Media Outlet: The Guardian
Publish Date: March 13, 2019

“One of the Netherlands’ most venerated institutions, the Rijksmuseum, has described the country’s failure to return artefacts stolen from former colonies as a “disgrace” as it opened talks with Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

(…) “It’s a disgrace that the Netherlands is only now turning its attention to the return of the colonial heritage,” Taco Dibbets, the Rijksmuseum’s director, told the Dutch newspaper De Trouw. “We should have done it earlier and there is no excuse.”

(…) The NMWC guidelines have been criticised for failing to force museums into take preparatory steps ahead of the issuing of claims by former colonial countries.

Jos van Beurden, a researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, said: “The NMWC uses a typical Dutch approach. Even before negotiations have started, conditions are already on the table.”