The Dutch royal house audited its own collection and found stolen goods in the Crown's holdings

The Fund for the Royal Private Collections commissioned an appraisal of roughly a thousand objects. Under suspicion are a golden amulet necklace and historical weapons from Indonesia, acquired in the colonial era. I can just picture how the Dutch East India Company would have laughed at so modest a discovery.

Negotiations on restitution are promised to begin shortly. The chair of the fund that established the objects to be stolen turned out to be Queen Máxima. "Careful handling of objects of colonial origin is of essential importance," the queen declared, handling with care objects that her family had come by precisely by handling the colonies rather carelessly.

The royal jewels will fare much as the decayed kayak and piece of matting did: what can easily be spared will be handed back, and in return the karma will be refreshed, for the media, with a handsome press release