National Museum

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The National Museum ("Museum Nasional"), is located in Jl. Merdeka Barat No. 12, Jakarta. The museum is open almost daily from 8:30 to 14:30, except Friday (8:30 to 11:30) and Saturday (8:30 to 13:30). Monday and public holidays are closed. Telp. (021)-3811551, (021)-3868172, Fax. (021)-3811076 History of the museum Historically, the museum was started by a group of Dutch collectors in Indonesia. They established a scientific institution called "Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen" (Batavia Society for Arts and Science), on 24th April 1778. JCM. Radermacher donated a building and a collection of cultural objects to start it with. In early of 19th century, General Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles built a new building on Jalan Majapahit no. 3 and called it the "Literary Society". In 1862, the Duthc East Indian government decided to build a museum, which was officially opened in 1868. The building is known as "Gedung Gajah" (Elephant House) because of the bronze elephant statue (donated by King Chulalongkorn, Thailand) in the front of the building. On 29th February 1950, the institution became "Lembaga Kebudayaan Indonesia" (Indonesian Culture Council), and on 17th September 1962 it was handed over to the Indonesia government and became the Central Museum (Museum Pusat). 28th May 1979, it was renamed as the National Museum (Museum Nasional) by decree of Minister of Education and Culture (no. 092/0/1979). Collections The museum has various collections; prehistorical artifacts, archeology, numismatik & heraldics, historical relics, geography, ethnography, and ceramics. It has more than 100.000 cultural objects. <more info and pictures will be added in the next update...>