Decolonizing the Endowment: A Critical Framework for Restructuring Museum Financial Portfolios to Support Restitution and Equity in Indonesia

Abstract

Museums globally are facing a profound ethical reckoning with their colonial foundations. In Indonesia, a nation with a rich history of resisting colonial rule, this discourse has intensified calls for the restitution of cultural artifacts. However, a critical barrier to these decolonial ambitions lies within the financial architecture of museums themselves: the endowment. This study investigated how traditional museum endowment management, guided by principles of perpetuity and maximum growth, often conflicts with and obstructs the ethical imperatives of restitution and equity. This research employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. Initially, a quantitative analysis of the investment portfolios of three representative Indonesian museums—a national museum, a private institution, and a regional museum—was conducted. This was followed by a qualitative phase involving in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 22 museum directors, curators, financial managers, and representatives from source communities. The data were analyzed to identify correlations between investment strategies and institutional capacities for decolonial action. The findings revealed that museum endowments were predominantly invested in global equity and bond markets, with significant exposure to multinational corporations in the Global North, including those in extractive and banking sectors with colonial entanglements. This structure created a "perpetuity paradox," where fiduciary duties were interpreted as precluding the use of funds for restitution-related costs. A profound disconnect was identified between the museums' public-facing decolonial missions and their internal financial strategies. The study culminated in the development of the Restitution and Equity-Aligned (REA) Framework, a novel model for portfolio restructuring. In conclusion, traditional endowment management represents a significant, yet often invisible, colonial legacy within museums. To genuinely decolonize, Indonesian museums must move beyond curatorial gestures and fundamentally restructure their financial engines. The proposed REA Framework provides a viable, ethical, and financially prudent pathway for aligning investment practices with the moral obligations of restitution and the pursuit of reparative justice, offering a replicable model for institutions worldwide.