Shadow puppet verification stalls at Solo museum

An attempt by the Radya Pustaka Museum in Solo, Central Java, to verify the authenticity of its collection of shadow puppets stalled Tuesday because of the lack of an expert.

Kompas.com reported that the Culture and Tourism Ministry sent a team to the museum tasked with creating an inventory of the puppets and verifying their authenticity. The museum recently reported that at least nine of its valuable shadow puppets had been stolen.

The team could only inventory a small number of the shadow puppets, team head Sri Ediningsih said.

The team noted 165 puppets, all of which were stored in glass boxes, she said.

The museum, which is one of the oldest in the country, has more than 500 Javanese artifacts stored in wooden boxes. The shadow puppet collection at the museum was donated by the former Solo Sultan Pakubuwono X when the museum opened in 1890.

Doubts about the authenticity of the museum’s collection of puppets were raised when renowned dalang (puppet master) Ki Manteb Sudharsono said he had seen some puppets bearing the hallmarks of the Pakubuwono collection in the possession of a German collector.

The Radya Pustaka Museum previously reported that 40 items from its collection of 1,443 stamped or printed books and 480 handwritten books were missing.

Previous to that, six Hindu statues dating from the fourth to the tenth centuries were found to be in the possession of a prominent businessman. A probe later revealed they had been sold by museum staff and replaced by forgeries. Museum head KRH Damoriduro was sentenced to 18 months in prison in the case.