HYDERABAD: With museums from the Netherlands promising to return over one lakh artefacts which were looted from Sri Lanka and Indonesia, there is a growing demand in Hyderabad that the Dutch should also hand over a number of paintings from the erstwhile Golconda kingdom that are housed in the famous Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam. These miniature paintings date back to the 17th century when the Dutch first touched the shores of the sub-continent.
They were made in Golconda by miniaturists for Europeans, who were stationed here for textile trade, according to the website of the Rijksmuseum. At the museum, these paintings are part of a set called the ‘Witsen Album’ which comprises 49 miniature paintings of rulers such as Akbar, Shah Jahan, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Raja Man Singh and others.
The book ‘Notes on a Collection of Historical Portraits from Golconda’ by Dr Hermann Goetz sheds some light on when these were shipped to the Netherlands.
The book states that, “The above dates make it probable that the paintings were brought from Golconda by the Dutch ambassador, Laurens Pit, in the summer of 1686...”. Albums such as these were commissioned by Europeans to get a general idea of India.
The recent repatriation debate sparked off after the Rijksmuseum and the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam backed a colonial repatriation committee report that over one lakh looted exhibits would be returned to the two Southeast Asian countries. Heritage activist Mohammed Safiullah said, “This can definitely be taken up in a larger way.” However, he said that these paintings were not stolen, and probably would be safer in European museums which have better facilities than those in India.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had recently tweeted in this regard too: “Congratulations to the Netherlands for deciding to return looted colonial artefacts. Will Britain ever acquire the moral courage to do likewise?”