The letter dated March 31 from the Indonesian director-general for culture, Hilmar Farid, "took us completely by surprise," recalled Delft Heritage curator Marga Schoemaker. Indonesia, the letter said, has decided not to accept a large donation of objects that belonged to Delft's Museum Nusantara.

This, Schoemaker says in September, was a 'very disappointing' culmination of a process that started three years ago, after the century-old museum permanent