Jakarta, IO – A total of 589 of the 871 collections affected by fire at the Indonesian National Museum (MNI) have been successfully identified.
Ahmad Mahendra, acting head of the Public Service Agency for Museums and Cultural Heritage (MCB) of the Ministry of Education and Culture, said the process of identifying hundreds was carried out for two weeks. He said that the process has now shifted to the ceramic collection, per Republika, Wednesday (11/10).
Mahendra said the efforts are assisted by experts from the Borodubur Conservation Center Team and the Cultural Preservation Center for Region VIII, Banten Province and Jakarta.
“Especially those affected by the collapsing roof of the cultural heritage building. Currently, the evacuation team is still sifting through the collection because it has to be done carefully,” he said.
Apart from handling the collection and the remaining rooms affected by the fire, Mahendra said that his team also carried out a classification based on the level of damage to the collection. He expected the classification to be completed by the end of this month.
In the classification process, Mahendra said he would divide it into three categories, namely lightly, moderately and heavily damaged. After that, various stages including rescuing the collection will also be carried out by the special team.
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He said that the series of processes that had to be carried out meant that the government has to temporarily close the museum until the end of the year.
“We want to provide optimal educational facilities to the public, so we are working on several programs,” said Mahendra. “This will of course happen concurrently with our efforts to continue to provide the public with the latest information regarding the MNI renovation.” (un)