page_title: Royal Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences
section_title: Museum collections
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences / Museum collections
caption_attribution_description: English: Sculptures at the museum of the Royal Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences, Batavia Nederlands: Foto. Beelden in het museum van het Koninklijk Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, Batavia
context_page_description: The Royal Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences was a Dutch learned society in Batavia.
  The society was founded in 1778 by naturalist Jacob Cornelis Matthieu Radermacher as the Bataviaasch Genootschap der Kunsten en Wetenschappen, and assumed its current name in 1910.
  After Indonesian independence in 1949, it was renamed the Lembaga Kebudajaan Indonesia in 1950, and in 1962 ceased operation. Its collection is now in the Museum Nasional.
context_section_description: Since its establishment, the Batavian Society had started gathering the collection acquired from the contributions of its members. The initial collection was much owed to its founder, J.C.M. Radermacher that contributed his house at De Groote Rivier street along with his collection of books, manuscripts, musical instruments, currency, flora samples of dried plants, etc. At that time, collecting and donating curious rare and unique objects is regarded as a commendable endeavour, intellectually fashionable and prestigious activity among the social elites in Batavia. 
  Therefore, the society's collection increased significantly. Since 1779, the society decided to exhibit its collection for public, although restricted only in Wednesday from 8 to 10 o'clock. This was the seed of the museum activity. The member of BG were allowed to borrow the SBG's book collection with time limit up to 3 weeks.
  During the British rule, Stamford Raffles donated an additional building located behind the Societeit de Harmonie hall to store the large sum of collections that insufficiently stored in De Groote Rivier building. Meanwhile, the collection grow significantly greater due to the addition of zoology collection in the form of preserved mammals, birds, seashells, etc.
  In 1822, Governor General G.A. Baron van der Capellen issued a decree to form a commission to search for important objects in Java and sent them to the Batavian Society. The policy to increase the museum collection was pushed further by the Governor General J.C. Baud's (1833-1836) decree that instructed the government officials throughout Dutch East Indies to assist in searching for important objects for Batavian Society museum collection.
  The surge of collection was not always beneficial to the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences, since it meant an increase in maintenance cost and storage space. To reduce its collections, therefore, in 1843 part of the zoology collection was sent out to the Ethnology Museum in Leiden, while the rest was auctioned. In 1850, the geological and mineralogy collection was sent to the newly established Physics Association.
  In 1855, a law regarding Treasure Discovery was enacted; stipulating that all archaeological findings in the Indies had to be reported to the government, and the Batavian Society museum might buy it in the price according to the an appropriate appraisal.
  By mid-19th century, the Batavian Society museum building in Harmoni was also considered insufficient to store and exhibit the growing collection. Although the plan to build a new museum has been conceived since 1836, it was not until 1862 the new museum finally came into reality. With the patronage of King Willem III, the colonial government built a new building on the present location of National Museum at Jalan Merdeka Barat 12. The original building was built in Greek Neoclassical architecture, and originally it has no second floor.
  The museum acquired its collection through many ways, among others were through scientific expeditions, archaeological sites, acquisition of private collections, gifts from distinguished patrons, objects donated by religious missions; such as ethnological artifacts acquired by Christian Zending and Catholic Missions, and also treasures acquired — or looted to be exact — from a number of military expeditions led by Dutch East Indies military throughout the archipelago against indigenous kingdoms and polities. Treasures, among others from Aceh, Lombok and Bali acquired through the military expeditions led by the Dutch colonial government, also made it to the collection of Batavian Society and Leiden Museum.
caption: The Hindu-Buddhist statue collection of Batavian Society, circa 1896.
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