Wednesday, August 18, 2010

It Broke My Heart

Story like this broke my heart. The thieves stole 81 pieces from the museum, including a precious golden mask from the 8th century, allegedly given by King Hayam Wuruk of Majapahit to his grandmother Queen Gayatri.

If the second biggest museum in the country has this problem, I wonder how many pieces we lost in smaller musea across the land.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Triesti,
Very sad indeed.

colson said...

No less than 81 pieces.. The sheer number suggest it has been a major theft. It really must be a blow to this Museum.

Always when objects of art are being stolen one wonders (a) how was that possible (what was wrong with security) and ( b) how will the thieves manage to sell these objects which are ( I assume) registered and well known by all experts.

triesti said...

This incident is the reason I'd rather like the idea that Dutch keeps Indonesian treasure for the time being. We have not enough money to care and protect them ourselves.

The whole world knows about the mask, it's a very famous one, so I suppose private collector requested it. They have weak security, apparently CCTV only available during visiting hours, with only two night guards and 1 guard during the day.