National Museum of the Republic of Indonesia

National Museum of the Republic of Indonesia or the Elephant Museum, is a museum located in central Jakarta, and precisely at Jalan Merdeka Barat.

• History Museum Gajah

National Museum of the Republic of Indonesia is one form of European influence, especially the spirit of the Enlightenment, which emerged at about age 18. This building was built in 1862 by the Dutch Government under Governor-General JCM Radermacher in response to the association Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen aimed at reviewing the scientific research in the Netherlands Indies. The museum was inaugurated in 1868, but the institutional forerunner of this museum was born in 1778, when the formation of Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen by the Dutch government.

The National Museum is known as Museum Gajah since dihadiahkannya statue of an elephant by King Chulalongkorn from Thailand in 1871. But on May 28, 1979, the official name became the National Museum of the Republic of Indonesia. Then on February 17, 1962, Indonesian Institute of Culture who managed, submitting to the government of the Republic of Indonesia Museum. Since then, the management official museum by the Directorate General of History and Archaeology, under the Ministry of Education and Culture. But starting in 2005, the National Museum under the management of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Notes on the website of the National Museum of the Republic of Indonesia in 2001 showed that the collection had reached 109,342 units. The number of collections that make this museum is known as the most comprehensive in Indonesia. In the year 2006 the number of collections had exceeded 140,000 units, but only a third that could be shown to the audience.

The museum is located at Jalan Merdeka Barat.

• National Museum Collection

Elephant Museum collects many antiquities from all over the archipelago. Among other things belonging to the collection are ancient statues, inscriptions, other ancient objects and craft items. Collections are categorized into the ethnography, bronze, prehistoric, ceramics, textiles, numismatic, historical relics, and precious objects.

Before the National Library building located at Jalan Salemba 27, Central Jakarta, was established, Elephant Museum collection includes ancient manuscripts. These texts and collections of the Museum Elephants are kept in the National Library.

Source collection came from archaeological excavations, grants collector since the days of the Dutch East Indies and purchases. Collections of ceramics and ethnographic collections in the museum's Indonesian and most comprehensive in the world. This museum is the first and largest museum in Southeast Asia.An interesting collection is the tallest statue of Bhairawa statue at the National Museum with a height of 414 cm this is a manifestation of the god Lokeswara or Awalokiteswara, which is a manifestation Boddhisatwa (radiance of Buddha) in the earth. This statue of a man standing on the corpses and rows of skulls and holding a skull cup in his left hand and a short dagger with his right hand of the Arab style, is found in Roco Padang, West Sumatra. This statue is estimated to come from century 13th - 14. The oldest collection of Buddhist statues in the museum is a statue of Buddha made of bronze Dipangkara, stored in a bronze room in its own glass box, a different fate with Buddha statues, Hindu statues of the oldest in the archipelago, namely Vishnu Cibuaya (about 4M) stone statues located in the space without text labels and hindered by the statue of Ganesha from the temple Lebanon.

• Maintenance Collection

In the 1960s, never to be looted gold collection undertaken by the leadership group Saprudin Kasdut. In 1979 there were also stolen coin collection. In 1987 a collection of ceramics worth Rp. 1.5 billion. And at the 1996 theft of a painting that could be found back in Singapore.

These managers realize that security is an important factor for maintaining the collection. Because the museum was equipped with an alarm, security cameras and 17 security officers.

Collection of closely guarded condition with conservation efforts. Mainly is a collection of papers that need careful handling. Often, the collection was removed and replaced with yag artificial materials. Although this reduces the authenticity, but it remains to consider the aesthetics and form of the original works conserved. Often, too, encountered the reconstruction efforts to replace the badly damaged collections.

In general, this museum shows the general attitude in most of Asia are more priority than maintaining ontentisitas restoration.