Some of these looted objects found their way into Dutch museum collections. Following a restitution request from Sri Lanka, an investigation into the provenance of the objects concerned, and the issuing of a recommendation by the Colonial Collections Committee, the Dutch government took the decision to restitute six objects from the Rijksmuseum collection. All of these objects are Sinhalese weapons that Dutch troops looted during the siege and capture of Kandy in 1765. The undersecretary for culture and media Gunay Uslu approved the restitution in August 2023. The weapons were returned to Sri Lanka in November that year, and they are now on display at the Colombo National Museum. Sri Lanka has expressed its wish that photographs of the weapons remain accessible to the Dutch public, so that the story of our shared colonial past continues to be told.
Getting started with the collection: