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Radya Pustaka Museum reopens with better look, security system

Doors open: Johnny Adams, a Canadian tourist, photographs valuable artifacts at Radya Pustaka Museum in Surakarta, Central Java, on Tuesday

Kusumasari Ayuningtyas (The Jakarta Post)
Surakarta
Wed, April 16, 2014

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Radya Pustaka Museum reopens with better look, security system Doors open: Johnny Adams, a Canadian tourist, photographs valuable artifacts at Radya Pustaka Museum in Surakarta, Central Java, on Tuesday. The museum was reopened Tuesday after an eight-month long renovation. (JP/Kusumasari Ayuningtyas) (JP/Kusumasari Ayuningtyas)

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span class="inline inline-none">Doors open: Johnny Adams, a Canadian tourist, photographs valuable artifacts at Radya Pustaka Museum in Surakarta, Central Java, on Tuesday. The museum was reopened Tuesday after an eight-month long renovation. (JP/Kusumasari Ayuningtyas)

One of Indonesia'€™s top museums, Radya Pustaka in Surakarta, Central Java, which is home to valuable archaeological artifacts and ancient manuscripts, reopened to the public on Tuesday after undergoing an eight-month facelift to revamp its look and improve security measures.

The head of the Radya Pustaka Museum committee, Purnomo Subagyo, said 16 CCTV cameras had been installed in strategic corners of the museum. However, he said that installing CCTV cameras was not enough as the museum still needed alarms and more security personnel.

'€œWe will propose a budget amendment for security personnel and alarms,'€ Purnomo said. The existing alarm system has been connected to the local police station.

Security at Radya Pustaka has long been a concern following the alleged theft of rare exhibits over the years. In 2007, the museum was reported to have lost dozens of statues.

In the same year, five stolen statues were found in businessman Hashim Djojohadikusumo'€™s house in Jakarta. The statues were from the country'€™s Hindu-Buddhist era, allegedly part of a number of missing valuables taken from Radya Pustaka Museum.

The police detained four suspects, including museum curator KRH Darmodipuro, in connection to the case. The suspects said they had made replicas of the statues and put them in the museum before selling the originals to Hashim for more than Rp 500 million (US$43,754).

Forty-two ancient manuscripts were reported to have been stolen in 2009, while in 2011, a number of Radya Pustaka'€™s wayang (leather puppets) went missing from the museum after being replaced with replicas.

This was revealed after an inventory was taken by the Radya Pustaka puppet collection identification team, which found six pieces missing, five of which were from the collection of Pakubowono X of Kasunanan Surakarta Palace.

The team also found that eight rare wayang had been replaced with replicas.

Meanwhile, Purnomo said the committee would take regular inventories and authenticate museum pieces to deter theft, adding that in the future, not all of the museum'€™s collections would be displayed, especially old manuscripts.

Only those considered to have an important story would be on display. This, he went on, would make the museum'€™s collections easy to monitor.

Separately, Surakarta Tourism and Culture Agency head Eny Tyasni Suzanna said that the renovation of the museum was considered sufficient, although there was a possibility that further renovation work would be done in the future.

She said the Rp 3 billion ($262,524) renovation project was done in two stages. The first stage was renovating the museum'€™s interior, while the second was rearranging the collections and developing the office building.

Eny also said that her office would promote Radya Pustaka to lure more visitors. This would include distributing leaflets about the museum at hotels and other public areas.

A Canadian tourist, Johnny Adams, said he had listed Radya Pustaka as a must-visit place during his first trip to Surakarta, adding that he was impressed by the collections and the interesting arrangement of the exhibits.

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