The building was built in 1870. At the beginning the building was used as Dutch Judiciary Institution or Raad Van Justitie, then when Japan colonized Indonesia and the fight for Indonesia freedom occurred the building was used as military dormitory. Furthermore, it was used as West Jakarta Mayor’s Office in 1967. In 1968 until 1975 it was used as office of DKI Jakarta Museum and History Official. On August 20th, 1976 it was announced officially as Fine Arts Gallery Building and now become Fine Arts and Ceramic Museum.

This museum has around 400 fine arts, which consist of many different techniques and materials, such as sculpture, graphic, wood totem, sketch, and painting batik. Among those collection there are some masterpieces, collections that useful for the art history in Indonesia. They are “Revolution Bride” painting by Hendra Gunawan, “Lebak Regent” painting by Raden Saleh. “Mother Give Sick” painting by Dullah, “Tritura Paramilitary Troops” painting by S. Sudjojono, and “Self-Portrait” painting by Affandi. Traditional classical sculpture from Bali, magical and symbolic wood totem by Tjokot and families, Totem and wood sculpture by modern artists, such as G. Sidharta, Oesman Effendi. Then followed by academy graduate artists creation, like Popo Iskandar, Achmad Sadali, Srihadi S. Fajar Sidik, Kusnadi, Rusli, Nashar, Zaini, Amang Rahman, Suprapto, Irsam. Mulyadi W, Abas Alibasyah, Amri Yahya, AS Budiono, Barli, Sudjana Kerton and many other artists from various regions. There are also plenty of ceramic collections in this museum, consist of local and foreign ceramic. the local ceramic comes from Aceh, Medan, Palembang, Lampung, Jakarta, Bandung, Purwakarta, Yogyakarta, Malang, Bali, Lombok, etc.

This Museum has also Majapahit ceramic from the 14th century, which show beautiful, extraordinary characteristic and have history value with various shapes and functions. The foreign ceramic of various shapes, characteristics, functions, and styles from China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Dutch, Germany, and Middle East. The greatest numbers are from China, especially from Ching and Ming Dynasty.

Fine Art’s and Ceramic Museum has specific souvenir for visitors, like post cards, fine art’s book, handicraft, sketch, fan, cute sculpture, etc. The Museum is open daily from 9 am to 3 pm on Tuesday to Sunday. The Museum is closed on Monday and Public Holidays.

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