3 Datasets

The Rijksmuseum tells the story of 800 years of Dutch history to the present day. Its collection comprises one million art historical objects, including those with a relation to formerly colonised territories. The Rijksmuseum is aware of the question of the legitimacy of managing objects acquired in a colonial context. It considers cooperation with partners from countries of origin and the Colonial Heritage Consortium a priority. This dataset of object descriptions is compiled for the Colonial Heritage Consortium 'Against Opacity' (2024) programme. It currently includes objects from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and the Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba). The goal is to expand the dataset with more objects from the other Dutch colonised territories and trading posts over time. For more information and to access the entire Rijksmuseum collection: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection

The complete collection of art and other movable heritage collections in the Netherlands is referred to as ‘Collectie Nederland’. An important part of this is the National Collection, of which the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) manages a subcollection. This art collection is made up of both fine art and applied art. The size is about 119.000 objects, of which one third is on loan and two thirds are kept in the Collection Centre of the Netherlands in Amersfoort. In 2018, the RCE conducted research with the aim of obtaining a clear picture of heritage in the collection related to the colonial past. So far, the research found that a small number of objects - or cultural belongings - come from a colonial context and often ended up in the collection through bequests of artists and collectors. The latter selection of records is what you find in this dataset from the RCE collection for the Datahub for Colonial Collections.