The Netherlands Will Transfer over 28,000 Fossils from the Dubois Collection to Indonesia At Their Request. Outgoing Minister Gouke Moes (Culture) Presented a Declaration of Intent to his Indonesian Counterpart, Fadli Zon, at the Naturalis Natural History Museum in Leiden.
The Fossils Were Excavated in Indonesia in The NineteENTEENTH CENTURY BY Forced Laborers, Under The Director of Dutch Scientist Eugène Dubois. In Total, IT CONCERNS ABOUT 28000 FOSSILS, Mainly from the Indonesian Islands of Sumatra and Java.
The most remarkable pieces are a skullcap, a molar, and a femur of gay erectus , an upright hominid consultant to be a link between ape and human.
Moes Decided to Return the Collection After Advice from the Independent Colonial Collections Committee. “The Thorough Advice has yielded New Legal Insights, Making Restitution the Right Choice,” Says Naturalis Director Marcel Beukeboom. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Indonesian scientists unabated.”
Naturalis Has Been Collaborating with Indonesian Scientists for some time in the Research Into the Fossils. With this they want to get the evolution of man more clearly in the picture.
The Committee wrote in its Judgment that the fossils Never Became the Property of the Netherlands. Also, injustice was done to the people who were forced to dig for fossils by their forced labor, and the fossils were of spiritual and economic importance to the inhabitants in the nineteenth century.