A large mansion, which showcases a blend of Javanese and European architectural styles, stands out magnificently on a 3,077-square-meter plot of land in the modest neighborhood of Laweyan batik village in Surakarta, Central Java.

At a glance, the compound — which contains three buildings previously owned by former chief of the National Police traffic corps Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo — looks like a hotel, with dozens of rooms filled with vintage Javanese furniture and an array of palm trees neatly growing in its vast yard.

But the mansion was in fact once the subject of a dispute after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in February 2013 seized the house from Djoko, who had been named a suspect of both corruption and money laundering in a scandal centering on a 2011 procurement of vehicle simulators.

Four years later on Tuesday, the KPK handed over the property worth Rp 49 billion (US$3.6 million) to the Surakarta city administration, which now plans to turn the house into a batik museum.

Located on Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan, the museum is set to be renovated to create space for display rooms and a workshop area.

A guesthouse will also be included in the plan to allow visitors to stay overnight and enjoy the Javanese ambience of the house, classified as a heritage building, for longer.

“We are yet to have a batik museum, even though this is Surakarta, a city known as a batik center. So, I think having a batik museum is important,” Surakarta Mayor FX Hadi “Rudy” Rudyatmo said.

Djoko’s family recently asked the KPK to stop the transfer, claiming they were still challenging the decision at the state administrative court.

The family’s lawyer Hawit Guritno has also argued that the certificate of the property was under the name of Djoko’s daughter Poppy Femialya.

“The house was purchased in 2007 for Rp 5.5 billion. It was long before Djoko was alleged to have participated in the corruption case. Thus, the house belongs to Poppy, not Djoko,” Hawit said.

The house is one of Djoko’s six properties seized by the KPK in February 2013 during its investigation into the graft scandal.

Djoko was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment seven months later. He also lost two appeal trials in December 2013 and July 2014 and, instead, received an additional 18 months imprisonment and was ordered to pay Rp 1 billion in fines.

KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo, who handed over the keys of the house to Rudy on Tuesday, said the granting process had been carried out in a proper fashion involving the Finance Ministry, which issued a green light on Sept. 15.

“The case is already closed. The house is now the state’s property, not the KPK’s,” Agus said.

The idea of establishing a batik museum in Surakarta has been mulled over since 2014 as the city is famous for its batik but is yet to open a public museum other than the one managed by a private batik company. The city administration, however, continued to encounter difficulties finding a suitable space for such a museum.

In 2016, the city administration proposed the transfer of the KPK-seized house to realize its plan to establish a batik museum managed by the city’s cultural agency.

Following the hand over on Tuesday, the Surakarta administration promised to arrange the budget to support the museum’s maintenance and operation costs next year.

“I don’t think the budget will be that big because the building is already there. What we need to do is convert it into a museum. Hopefully it will be completed by next year,” said Rudy who later revealed that he was in communication with batik collectors about collections that could be displayed in the museum.

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