The Netherlands on Monday handed over ownership of six colonial-era treasures to Sri Lankan authorities, including an 18th-century bronze cannon decorated with gold and silver and encrusted with rubies, which is now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, AFP and Agerpres reported.

At a ceremony organized at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture of Sri Lanka in the city of Colombo, the Deputy Minister of Culture of the Netherlands, Gunai Uslu, signed the documents certifying that Sri Lanka is the owner of these objects, the officials of the Asian country announced.

Instead, the National Museum of Sri Lanka granted the famous Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam the right to store the treasures until they are transported to Colombo in December.

The first batch to be sent to Sri Lanka includes the ‘Leuke Cannon’ said to have been a gift from the Lankan aristocrat Leuke Disawa to the King of Kandy around 1745-1746. This spectacularly decorated cannon was confiscated by Dutch soldiers in 1765.

After being exhibited in the Netherlands, the cannon finally arrived at the Rijksmuseum. The other items – two gold and silver swords, two guns and a dagger – date from the era when the Asian island nation was part of the Dutch colonial empire, from 1658 to 1796.

The debate on the colonial past in the Netherlands

The decision to return the colonial-era sites to the Sri Lankan and Indonesian authorities followed the recommendations of a commission set up by the Dutch government to investigate illegal acquisitions made during the colonial empire.

The commission was created after Indonesia, a former Dutch colony, wanted to return its art and natural history collections. Sri Lanka also demanded the return of its treasures that had been looted by the Dutch.

The Asian island was ruled by Portugal from 1505 to 1658, before coming under Dutch control, then under the control of the British colonial empire, and gaining independence in 1948.

An independent report commissioned by the Dutch state in June concluded that the House of Orange, the country’s royal house, alone extracted around 3 million guilders from the Dutch colonies between 1675 and 1770. According to a study called The State and Slavery, this amount is equivalent to $600 million in today’s money.

In early July, Dutch King Willem-Alexander apologized for his country’s role in the slave trade amid public debate in the Netherlands over its colonial past.