THE HAGUE - An independent investigation into the provenance of colonial objects in the private collection of the Royal House must show whether the objects were looted or obtained under duress. This was announced by the Historical Collection of the House of Orange-Nassau (SHVON). The study is estimated to take at least a year and a half.
Queen Máxima is chair of SHVON and attaches great importance to this research. Together with the foundation, she has appointed a committee that will supervise the investigation.
The research team will include Valika Smeulders, heritage specialist, head of Rijksmuseum History and member of the Advisory Committee on the National Policy Framework for Colonial Collections. Art historian and former director of the Netherlands Institute for Art History, Rudi Ekkart and historian Martin Bossenbroek. Smeulders has previously conducted research into the origin of colonial heritage and the history of slavery in the Netherlands, Suriname and Curaçao, among other places.
Once the results of the investigation are known, the committee will make a recommendation that will be submitted to SHVON. Although the colonial objects belong to the private collection of the Royal House, the recommendations will resemble the criteria associated with the national collection as much as possible.
In 2015, research was already done into part of the royal collection that may have been linked to robbery, confiscation or forced sale from and during the Nazi regime. It turned out that the vast majority belonged to the collection long before 1933.