75 ct diamond set in gold from Lombok, ID. Part of the thousands of kilograms of treasure looted by the Dutch when they pillaged the island in 1894 and razed it’s palaces during the conquest of the East Indies. Possibly repatriated to Indonesia from Leiden’s Museum Volkenkunde in 2023? [1024×1024]

[https://thediplomat.com/2023/07/netherlands-announces-return-of-cultural-objects-to-indonesia/](https://thediplomat.com/2023/07/netherlands-announces-return-of-cultural-objects-to-indonesia/)

I couldn’t quite find a clear description of what happened to this jewel specifically, but it was probably in the collection repatriated last year.

Part of the so called ‘Lombok royal treasure,’ this item was presumably looted from one of the palaces near the modern city of Mataram. Most likely it’s previous owners were Balinese aristocrats who were either killed by the Dutch or who committed suicide during the invasion to escape capture. Although the Dutch invasion was extremely violent, it nevertheless had support from parts of the population. This was because in 1894 Lombok was in a state of civil war, with parts of the island fighting for independence from Balinese Kings. Facing defeat at the hands of the Balinese, some of the rebels preferred to surrender to the Dutch instead and invited their intervention.