Musa Jonatan: A Part Time Curator

Musa Jonatan trained himself to become a part time curator.

It has been about 20 years, since Musa Jonatan become a curator for antiques and ceramics. His involvement was not something done on purpose. Collecting

antiques has been a log time passion for Musa. While he was studying economics in the late 1980’s in Tarumanegara University his interest for antiques and ceramics grew even stronger. Until now even only as a part time profession, Musa continues to do the thing that he loves most.

Starting from his fondness of collecting antiques, the man who was born on 1963 in Jakarta then continues to develop his expertise by reading literatures on history of Japan, China, Indonesia and literatures about ceramics from all over the world, especially ceramics from China. To add up to his reference, Musa avidly visit many ceramic exhibitions.

“If we only read books, we only have a very limited knowledge. As a curator, it is very important to look at the object firsthand. Visual check, measuring the weight of the object, feeling the texture, is as important as theoretical knowledge.”

Musa also like to collect imitations of ceramics. In his chosen field of work it is important to get as many references on ceramic as he can, because the quality of the imitations keeps improving over the years, especially when it comes to imitation coming rom China. “Trained eyes are needed to see the differences between the real and the imitation,” said he.

The first auction Musa handled was held in hotel Borobudur in the 1990’s. One of his acquaintances was a member of Himpunan Keramik Indonesia (Indonesia’s

Ceramic Association). His reputation was known by the association. He was invited to become a member of the team of curators appointed to be in charge of the auction.It was a one time involvement. Because a work of a curator is something he does as a part time job. Until now Musa is often took part in estimating objects auctioned at Denindo Auction.

As curator if antiques, his responsibility ranges from determining the age of an object, and estimating the appropriate price for the object. “A chip or crack on the ceramic, would reduce it’s price up until 2/3 or ¾ of the original price.” It is not the same with the wooden objects or furniture.

According to Musa, Indonesia has a wide range of ceramic wealth. Many people from countries such as China, Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia comes to Indonesia just to look for the ceramics.

Musa admits that he also collected ceramic. “But I collect just to add reference to my work. If we don’t have the real object as a comparison, how would we determine which one is real and which one is not?”