Culture | Return of the repressed

A new exhibition illuminates the history of Dutch slavery

Once among the world’s leading slavers, the Dutch have long sought to play down this part of their colonial past

|AMSTERDAM

IN 1881 SOMEONE donated an antique brass circlet to the Rijksmuseum, the Dutch national museum of art and history. The object (pictured) is a bit of a stumper. Engraved with a heraldic shield and the year 1689, it bears no indication of what purpose it served. The museum staff listed it as a dog collar.

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Return of the repressed”

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