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In 2023, the Netherlands returned six artefacts that were looted from Kandy, Sri Lanka in 1765 by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), which were put on display at the Colombo National Museum (CNM). This is a virtual exhibit on those artefacts, intended to provide broader access to them, critically examine the CNM’s captions, and to facilitate a deeper understanding of the repatriation process.

Provenance research on the artefacts began in 2019 under the Pilotproject Provenance Research on Objects of the Colonial Era by the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (RMA) and the National Museum of World Cultures. The CNM’s exhibit on these artefacts draws from this provenance research, presenting one possible narrative about them. However, these artefacts can be examined and understood in a multitude of ways—they could provide insight into the artistic and technological practices of the period or be a window into the socio-political context of 18th century Kandy or into diplomacy in the past and present, for example. For this virtual exhibition, we are choosing to focus on how these artefacts and their return to Sri Lanka reflect the history and processes of repatriation.

This virtual exhibit is part of CHDM’s Confronting Debates on Repatriation and Heritage project, funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The International Council of Museums Code of Ethics notes “Information published by museums, by whatever means, should be well-founded, accurate and give responsible consideration to the academic disciplines, societies, or beliefs presented.” Through this virtual exhibit, we hope