Closed for more than a year after a devastating fire in September 2023, the National Museum of Indonesia (MNI) reopened on October 15, 2024. It is a new start for the museum, which took advantage of the work to redevelop its exhibition spaces and renew its programming.
The museum benefited from a renovation of the damaged spaces and its security system. The MNI has a new space for the conservation of its works as well as a digital database of collections for better management, reports the museum management. The renovation was carried out by the Indonesian Heritage Agency, with the help of UNESCO restoration experts and international specialists from France, the Netherlands, the United States and Japan.
The collections affected by the fire will be exhibited again in the renovated and modernized galleries. They have been completely reorganized around three stories on cultural heritage, its origins, the country’s struggle for independence and the challenges of sustainable development. New interactive exhibition rooms complete the reorganization, with spaces dedicated to augmented reality. A new room is devoted to rock paintings, which will be exhibited through an immersive display. Virtual tours are organized for the public. The redevelopment of the museum also allows it to host its first temporary exhibitions, explains the management of the MNI.
The National Museum of Indonesia closed on September 16, 2023 following a fire caused by an electrical short circuit that destroyed part of the building where the exhibition halls were located. The collections had been affected, with a loss of 817 historical artifacts, most of them replicas of works.
The National Museum of Indonesia is a museum of archeology and ethnology. Intimately linked to the history of colonization, the museum was founded in 1778 by a company created by the Netherlands to promote research in archeology. The museum has more than 61,600 artifacts: Hindu and Buddhist sculptures, ceramics and various archaeological and ethnological objects belonging to the history of Indonesia.
Visitors will be able to attend two temporary exhibitions, visible until December 31, 2024. The first exhibition focuses on the restoration site and the second exhibition entitled “The return of the cultural heritage of the archipelago and knowledge” highlights the restitutions of Indonesian works acquired during colonization. The public will be able to see the four Singasari statues repatriated from the Netherlands earlier this month.
