Bartele Santema, above, a successful Jakarta pub owner, is now selling old maps of Indonesia above CazBar in Mega Kuningan. (JG Photos/Tasa Nugraza Barley)
If you’re a foreigner and have lived in Jakarta long enough, chances are, you would have found your way into one of Dutchman Bartele Santema’s popular bars on a random evening.
He first opened the popular BuGils pub in Jakarta in 2000. The initial venture, which now has a branch in Bali, has expanded into other popular Jakarta hangouts CazBar, Eastern Promise, De Hooi and One Tree.
But after having spent a decade in the bar business listening to other people talk about their cares all night, Santema wanted a change of scene.
The yearning for something different prompted him to open Bartele Gallery on Dec. 21, right above CazBar in Mega Kuningan.
“The condition outside the city is very chaotic,” Santema said.
“People need a place like this. When you travel to a city, the first place you want to go to is a map store.”
Santema claims that his gallery — which sells antique maps, prints and books and where visitors can relax and have a cup of coffee while enjoying old collections — is the first and only one of its kind in the country.
The gallery is also gearing itself to become a casual meeting place where professionals can hang out and swap stories.
The barman has been in Indonesia for a total of 20 years now. He decided to seek adventure in the islands because he was bored milking cows and riding horses at his father’s ranch in the Netherlands.
When he arrived in Indonesia, he was employed for the first 10 years before deciding to open his own business.
His two decades of living in the islands has resulted in a book, “Bule Gila: Tales of Dutch Barman in Jakarta,” published in 2005 by Equinox Publishing.
The phrase bule gila translates to crazy foreigner. In the book, he provides funny and interesting anecdotes from doing business as a foreigner in Jakarta.
Although not claiming to be an expert, Santema said he was an avid fan of old and historical items.
He said that for his gallery, he decided to focus on antique maps because almost all cities in the world have map stores except for Indonesia.
Santema said that although he wasn’t really proud of his country’s history in Indonesia, the Netherlands has made quite a lot of good maps of the archipelago.
When the Dutch occupied Indonesia, the Netherlands had the world’s best mapmakers at the time and a lot of the maps made were of the islands.
“Four hundred years ago, Indonesia was a very important place in the trading world because this country exported lots of spices to the rest of the world, especially Europe,” Santema said. He explained that maps of Indonesia, mostly Java Island, were produced because of this significance.
Santema said that making a profit was not Bartele Gallery’s primary concern. Mostly, the gallery wants to increasing people’s awareness of history.
Santema said he was saddened by the fact that most Indonesians were not interested in their country’s history, and he is hoping that through the gallery, this may possibly change.
“I hope that through my gallery more people will want to appreciate museums and old buildings in Jakarta and Indonesia,” he said.
The gallery acquired its collection through the barman’s personal connections and through auctions.
He has spent a lot of time on the phone and online to hunt down specific maps that he wanted to acquire.
The gallery’s current collection include Hereford Mappa Mundi, a world map that was originally made in the 13th century and reproduced in the 19th century. Santema said that only 100 19th century reproductions of this map are in existence.
A 500-year-old map of Southeast Asia can also be found at the gallery. “This is a very limited edition and it’s still in perfect condition,” he said.
In addition, one can also find old prints showing pictures of buildings and natural sceneries made by artists J.W. Heydt in the 1740s and C.W.M. Van de Velde in the 1840s.
The maps in the collection are priced according to its value. The low-end starts at $20 while the expensive ones can be as much as $7,000.
Santema said he has received positive responses all around from people about his venture and that he would see to it that his gallery is filled with new items.
