BOOKS Memories of a Lost Museum Highlights from Museum Nusantara Delft Highlights from Museum Nusantara Delft By Arnold Wentholt. Published in English by C. Zwartenkot Art Books, Leiden/Stiching Nusantara, Delft, 2014. 240 pages, illustrated in color. ISBN: 978-90-5450-013-1. Hardcover, 45 euros. It was with great sadness that Indonesian 156 art aficionados learned of the decision made in early January 2013 by the city of Delft, the Netherlands, to close the Nusantara Museum. Budgetary constraints were cited as the reason. This small institution, the only one in the world outside of Indonesia devoted entirely to the artistic creations of the many cultures of that diverse nation, had hosted interested visitors for more than a hundred years. To ensure that the museum’s name and its collection would not be forgotten, the Nusantara Foundation—which includes the museum’s major benefactors— has sponsored the publication of a reference book, the production of which was entrusted to art historian Arnold Wentholt, a specialist in Indonesian tribal art who has considerable experience in preparing exhibitions on Indonesian art as well as writing on the subject. The result of this preservation project is Highlights from the Nusantara Museum Delft, a richly illustrated and meticulously documented 240-page book that was released in April 2014. Despite its specific focus, it will be of great interest even to those who do not have nostalgic memories of the museum, and even to those who do not yet have a passion for Indonesian art. The History of the Institution One of the book’s strongest points is undoubtedly the seven-page introduction that provides an account of the Nusantara Museum’s history. This is enhanced By Mara Levy FIG. 1 (left): Detail of a textile, hinggi. Sumba. Image reproduced on p. 161. FIG. 2 (right): Mask, topeng. Toba Batak, Sumatra. Image reproduced on p. 26. FIG. 3 (below): Detail of an amulet, eulacawahe. Enggano, Sumatra. Image reproduced on p. 75. with recent photographs of the building and its galleries, which will help keep its memory alive. The concise text details the museum’s creation and origin of the nucleus of its collection, which was brought together by Salomon Keijzer, the first director of Indische Instelling. In 1864, he published an advertisement in the Delftsche Courant newspaper inviting citizens of the town—former colonials in particular—to donate Indonesian material in order to form a corpus of objects that could help familiarize young students with the arts of these distant islands. Various additions to these original holdings and the names of those responsible for making them are then enumerated, allowing the reader to understand the successive phases in the development of this institution, which, when it closed, housed nearly 20,000 objects. This
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