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Jakarta Post

Palace art collection belongs to Sukarno family: Guruh Sukarno Putra

News Desk (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, August 24, 2016

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Palace art collection belongs to Sukarno family: Guruh Sukarno Putra Chairman of the Bung Karno Foundation, Guruh Sukarno Putra, has asked for a status clarification of thousands of items collected by Sukarno, which are now being kept in the Presidential palace. (Tempo/Nurdiansah)

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hairman of the Bung Karno Foundation, Guruh Sukarno Putra, has asked for a status clarification of thousands of art items collected by first president Sukarno, which are now housed in the State Palace.

Guruh also called on the government to return the collection to Sukarno’s family first before being returned to the palace.

“Those items are Sukarno’s collection. The correct procedure is to return them to Sukarno’s heirs. Even if there’s a mandate to return them to the people, the state cannot automatically take ownership of the collection. Ethically, there should be a discussion [with the family],” Guruh explained to tempo.co in the Indonesian Art and History Seminar at the National Gallery on Monday.

According to Guruh, the government must clarify the status of the collection. He hopes the government will open a discussion about this with the Sukarno family via the Bung Karno Foundation. The foundation, Guruh says, reserves the right to discuss the matter as it was formed by all eight of Sukarno’s children.

The State Palace houses almost 3,000 historical items, more than 2,000 of which were collected during president Sukarno’s era. Most of the collection comprises paintings by local and international artists.

(Read also: State Palace painting exhibition)

In the seminar, Guruh explained the history of Bung Karno’s art collection, and expressed his disappointment at how Sukarno’s mandate about his collection had not being carried out. He claimed many items in the palace collection had gone missing, despite being under heavy security protection.

Guruh gave an example of a missing painting that ended up in a businessman’s collection and a Basuki Abdullah painting that was being exhibited in an auction house. There are also paintings that have been stolen and replaced by replicas now on display.

Former palace management head Adek Wahyuni Saptantinah acknowledged that there was no official data on the palace’s collection.

According to Adek, if there are missing paintings from the palace collection, they probably went missing during the transitional period from Sukarno to Suharto’s administration. “When I was hired, there was no official list, so we started the data collection individually on president Sukarno’s collection,” Adek says.

Adek explained the data-input was followed by collection appraisals to determine the maintenance budget. During her time in service, there were no missing items, some of the palace’s collection, which was kept in museums and galleries, was even returned to the palace without any fees.

“There are two paintings in the Rudana Museum, Bali. One more painting is in a gallery in Jakarta. They are willing to return the paintings,” she said.

Guruh also expressed the Bung Karno Foundation’s intention to maintain the Sukarno collection in one place, for instance in a museum.

(Read also: State Palace exhibits iconic paintings to celebrate Independence Day)

Mikke Susanto, curator of the 17:71 Goresan Juang Kemerdekaan exhibition, says there still are problems in the management of the palace collection and the exhibition is a way to protect the palace collection. “These items have not made it into the cultural preservation, and they don’t have the protection laws either,” he said.

Cultural director general, Hilmar Farid, also said his team would expedite regulation regarding this and would convey the messages and aspirations to the palace and presidential secretariat.

Deputy of political communication and information dissemination of the presidential staff office, Eko Sulistyo echoed Hilmar’s statement, “There has been a lot of input. We will deliver it.”

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