10th Century Sandstone Carvings Returned by the Met to Cambodia

Buddhist monks chanted blessings, brought flowers and sprinkled sacred water on a recently returned pair of stone statues. The return of the life-size  10th century sandstone carvings known as, “The Kneeling Attendants” to Cambodia, four decades after temple raiders took them, was celebrated by everyone including government officials.

Multiple donors

The statues depict a scene from an epic that lies as the center of Hinduism. The statues represent two brothers from the Mahabharata saga. For two decades, the two “Kneeling Attendants” have stood at the doorway of the Southeast Asian collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 5th Avenue in New York City. The pieces were donated to the museum in separate pieces from 1987 to 1992.

The Met said that three of the four pieces were donated by 81-year old Douglas Latchford from Britain, a Bangkok-based art dealer. One piece was sent through Spink & Son, an auction house based in London. The fourth piece was an endowment from the late Raymond Handley, an American.

Just one of many

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City announced in May that it would return the pieces in response to the request of the government of Cambodia. The museum sent experts to Cambodia and after a long and careful consideration, it acceded to the request. This is the first time that an institution willingly returned a piece of lost antiquity. According to experts, thousand more other stolen pieces could still be returned to the country.

More statues

The Cambodian government has claimed that the Met could still have a dozen more statues. In addition, the government believes at least three other museums in the United States including the Denver Art Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art have pieces that were improperly obtained. The authorities believe that the statue known as “Bhima” is displayed at the Norton Simon Museum in California. The Cambodian government is also currently involved in legal discussions on another statue called the “Duryodhana” with the prominent auction house, Sotheby’s. In 2011 Sotheby’s tried selling the statue.

According to experts, these statues and others from the site were taken from temples from 1967 up to the mid 70s. During this time, Khmer Rouge rebels were plotting in the jungle and Cambodia was caught up in a fall-out of the Vietnam War. In the middle of the civil war in the country, the statues were removed from their pedestals in a jungle temple and were shipped out.

Home to stay

The original home of the statues is the Prasat Chen sanctuary, one of 180 sanctuaries within the Koh Ker site. This is a 30-square mile archaeological site located in the northern region of Cambodia. Koh Ker was a flourishing Khmer city 75 miles from Siem Reap where the world-famous Angkor Wat temple complex is located.

Their importance in Cambodian culture is unparalleled. Archaeologist Chen Chanratana who witnessed the arrival of the life-size statues in a wooden crate said that it was indeed a very special occasion, the first time that something taken from Cambodia has been returned.

Photo Credit: A shrine at Koh Ker, Cambodia.