page_title: National Museum of Indonesia
section_title: Republic of Indonesia period
hierarchical_section_title: National Museum of Indonesia / History / Republic of Indonesia period
caption_attribution_description: English: The peristylia (inner courtyard) of the National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta, display statues of ancient Indonesian Hindu-Buddhist era.
context_page_description: The National Museum of Indonesia, is an archeological, historical, ethnological, and geographical museum located in Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta, right on the west side of Merdeka Square. Popularly known as the Elephant Building after the elephant statue in its forecourt. Its broad collections cover all of Indonesia's territory and almost all of its history. The museum has endeavoured to preserve Indonesia's heritage for two centuries.
  The museum is regarded as one of the most complete and the best in Indonesia, as well as one of the finest museum in Southeast Asia. The museum has preserved about 141,000 objects, ranged from prehistoric artifacts, to archeology, numismatics, ceramics, ethnography, history and geography collections. It has comprehensive collections of stone statues of classical Hindu-Buddhist period of ancient Java and Sumatra, as well as quite extensive collections of Asian ceramics.
context_section_description: After the Indonesian independence, in February 1950, the institution was renamed the Lembaga Kebudayaan Indonesia (Indonesian Cultural Institute). On September 17, 1962 it was handed over to the Indonesian government and became known as Museum Pusat (Central Museum). By decree of the Minister of Education and Culture No. 092/0/1979 May 28, 1979 it was renamed the Museum Nasional.
  On the last quarter of 20th century, the museum's manuscripts and literature collections was handed over to the National Library of Indonesia, while the fine arts collection such as paintings are relocated to the National Gallery.
  In 1977, an agreement between Indonesia and the Netherlands accede to return some of cultural treasures back to Indonesia. The prized treasures among others are the treasures of Lombok, the Nagarakretagama lontar manuscript, and the exquisite Prajnaparamita of Java statue.
  These treasures were sent back from the Netherlands and now being kept in the National Museum of Indonesia.
  In 1980s there was a government policy to establish Museum Negeri or State Museum in every provinces in Indonesia. This idea came to reality in 1995 when all provinces of Indonesia has their own state museums. Since then, all the archaeological findings discovered in each provinces were not necessarily taken to the National Museum in Jakarta, but being kept and displayed in the province's state museums located in provincial capitals instead. The exceptions however, applied for some highly important archaeological findings, such as 10th century Wonoboyo Hoard and bronze Shiva statue.
  In 2007, a new building to the north side of existing building was opened, featuring many artifacts from prehistoric times to modern times. This new building, called Gedung Arca (Statue Building), provides a new exhibition wing. The old building is named as Gedung Gajah (Elephant Building).
  In September 11, 2013, four precious golden artifacts from the 10th-century Eastern Medang kingdom period was stolen from the museum. The items were first discovered in the ruins of the Jalatunda ancient royal bathing place and in the temples on the slopes of Mount Penanggungan in Mojokerto Regency, East Java. The four missing artifacts were a dragon-shaped gold plaque, a scripted crescent-shaped gold plaque and one golden-silver Harihara plaque, as well as a small golden box. All the missing items were displayed together in a glass showcase located inside the archaeology gold artifact and treasure room on the second floor of the Gedung Gajah (old wing) building.
  Currently there are two main buildings in the museum, the Gedung A (Gedung Gajah or old wing) in the south, and Gedung B (Gedung Arca or the new wing) in the north. The third building, the Gedung C is planned as an extension to house and preserve the museum's extensive collection. By 2017, the old wing or Gedung Gajah is under major renovation, while the Gedung C is under construction.
  During the Royal Netherlands state visit to Indonesia in March 2020, King Willem-Alexander returned the kris of Prince Diponegoro to 
  Indonesia, received by President Joko Widodo. Today considered as Indonesian national hero, Prince Diponegoro of Yogyakarta was the charismatic leader of the mass rebellion against Dutch colonial rule in Central Java, that was defeated and taken prisoner after the conclusion of Java War in 1830. His kris was long considered lost, but has now been found, after being identified by the Dutch National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden. The extraordinary gold-inlaid Javanese dagger previously was held as the Dutch State Collection, and is now part of the collection of the Indonesian National Museum.
caption: The peristyle (inner courtyard) of the National Museum, features Doric order Greek architecture.
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