Return_p01_88_HT_Return 21-12-11 23:33 Pagina 62
1 Was the keris, once handed over by Diponegoro’s sergeant master, really Diponegoro’s keris, or did the sergeant master give a minor type? 2 What did Pieter Pott know about the keris that we do not know anymore? Is there information in archives or in other places or with other persons that can tell us more? 3 It appears that the keris was in the 1980’s in the safe of the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden. If so, what happened to it after that? 4 The safe of the Leiden museum has a keris with a number, linked to Diponegoro, but according to an expert, this cannot be Diponegoro’s keris. Does that mean that two collection numbers have been changed? And if so, did this happen by accident or did someone do it purposely so as to prevent that the museum had to yield it, or for another reason? The Netherlands and Indonesia should make a final effort to investigate the whereabouts of a keris of Prince Diponegoro that is supposed to be in the Netherlands. ‘It would be very good, if the National Museum of Ethnology would set up a committee to renew the investigation’, argues Legêne.33 She is confident that the keris can be found. Steven Engelsman ‘will not oppose such an investigation and the National Museum of Ethnology will fully cooperate and open its archives and depots, but we do not have any money or manpower for it.’34 Catrini Kubontubuh of the BPPI Indonesian Heritage Trust is in favour of an investigation and of a return: ‘The keris is significant Indonesian heritage and should come back to Indonesia to be integrated in the Diponegoro collection. One of Diponegoro’s descendants should be added to a committee with Dutch and Indonesian experts’.35 She will not be the only Indonesian heritage-lover, who thinks along this line. Porcelain discovered by Dutch customs and ready for return, but source countries showed no interest (Photo: Jos van Beurden)
62