The collecting of works of art for the state-owned art collection housed in the National Gallery of Indonesia has been going on since the early days of Indonesia’s independence, staring with selections made by the Republic Of Indonesia Art Agency centered in Yogyakarta, and continuing with the Secretariat of the Directorate General of Culture, and the Central Museum (now the National Museum) in Jakarta.  The collection has been compiled generally through purchases and donations of artworks. Among the most artistically and historically significant works in the collection are paintings by Raden Saleh, S. Soedjojono, Affandi, Basuki Abdullah, Kartono Yudhokusumo, Hendra Gunawan, Nashar, Achmad Sadali, Popo Iskandar and others.