In the 1930s, so-called Yogya silver became a 'rejuvenated' craft by Mrs. Van Gesseler Verschuir-Pownall. In close collaboration with the Archaeological services, Mrs. Van Gesseler Verschuir-Pownall would select 'authentic' motifs, after which she would commission silversmiths to produce these objects for a European market. Van Asdonck looks at the causes of the 'decline' of the silversmith industry in Java, and the violent nature of the Ethical Policy in the field of arts and crafts. Rather than understanding Yogya Silver as a revival, Van Asdonck understands it as an invented practice of erasure in the context of colonial and imperial relations.
Marjolein van Asdonck works as the Curator Southeast Asia at the Wereldmuseum, with a focus on Indonesian material culture, colonial history and communities from the Indonesian diaspora. Prior to this, she was editor-in-chief of the magazine Moesson, founded in 1956 by the Eurasian community in the Netherlands. She studied Indonesian Languages and Cultures at the University of Leiden.