Rotterdam city council has handed back two Indonesian statues that were stolen during the Dutch colonisation of Bali in the 19th century.

The statues, which have been on display at the world heritage museum Wereldmuseum Rotterdam, were formally handed over along with 66 smaller objects to Indonesia’s ambassador, Mayerfas.

The Singa statues, depicting mythical lions representing protection and benevolence, were taken from a palace in Lombok in 1894.

They were included in a collection of more than 300 objects seized during a military expedition in Bali a decade later.

Thousands of islanders were killed in a series of bloody revenge attacks that began when local residents helped themselves to the contents of a stranded ship.

Other items from the collection, named Puputan Bandung after an Indonesian word meaning death in battle, were returned in two batches in 1977 and last year. Some of the artworks have been displayed in the Museum Nasional in Jakarta.

“This art was never ours,” said alderman for culture, Saïd Kasmi, “By giving back these artworks we can put right what we did wrong in the past.

“They should go back to their country of origin so that the people living there can enjoy their ancestors’ art.”

It is the first time artworks have been returned since new national guidelines were drawn up five years ago requiring museums to return items that were taken illegally or without the owner’s permission, or which have significant cultural value.

Around half the 375,000 objects in the collection of the Wereldmuseum – created last year from a merger of the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal and the Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden  – have a colonial connection.