The Dutch government has agreed to return thousands of fossils to Indonesia from a world-renowned collection, after a commission ruled that they were removed in the colonial era “against the will of the people,” the education ministry announced Friday.
The historically significant trove known as the Dubois Collection includes a piece of skull uncovered from the Solo River on the island of Java that is regarded as the first fossil evidence of Homo erectus.
The decision to return more than 28,000 fossils to Indonesia is the latest act of restitution by the Dutch government of art and artifacts taken — often by force — from countries around the world in colonial times.
The fossils were excavated in the late 19th century by Dutch anatomist and geologist Eugène Dubois, when present day Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands.
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