Neglect and musical instruments.
In Solo, Jawa, there are two branches of the House of Mataram:- the Karaton , which is the principal branch, and a minor branch that is the Mangkunegaraan.
In the museum of the Mangkunegaraan there used to be a wonderful and totally unique vibrafone.
The tubes under the plates were made of blue glass that had been made in France. The sound was totally unlike any vibrafone I had ever heard. Unique. One of a kind. Wonderful.
It was still playable in 1978.
Sometime in the mid 1980's my wife and I were visiting the Mangkunegaraan and noted that this vibrafone was missing.
We asked where it was.
Nobody knew of it.
Then we asked one old fellow who looked like he had been around the place for ever. He remembered it and thought he knew where it was.
We followed him to a decrepit old shed stuck in a back corner of the palace grounds, and there was the magnificent, unique, vibrafone of blue glass in a pile in a corner. The frame eaten by insects, many of the blue glass cylinders broken, and other junk thrown on top of it. The roof of the shed leaked and every time it rained the things in the shed got wet.
I do not know where this vibrafone is today.
If these cultural artifacts --- including weapons --- had not been removed from their cultures of origin it is very probable that they would not exist today.
And now the governments and people of these places want the Western Barbarians to return their cultural artifacts?
Yeah --- right!!
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