Coming Home – 2019:
The return or repatriation of Khmer works of art can be through a variety of sources such as overseas museums, auction houses and galleries, via diplomacy with foreign governments, seizures by the Cambodian authorities in-country or donations from private collectors or individuals. The latter category saw an unexpected and significant return of 85 artifacts on 5 July 2019, donated by a Japanese national to the Kingdom of Cambodia and officially handed back in a ceremony presided over by HE Prak Sonnara, Secretary of State for Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. The ceremony took place at the National Museum and the haul was primarily small bronze figures, gold decorative pieces and ceramics from the Pre-Angkor and Angkorian periods. Ms Fumiko Takakuwa had collected the pieces with her husband Dr. Mori Mita Takakuwa, purchasing them in Japan over the previous twenty years and displayed them at home until she fulfilled her late husband’s wish to see them returned home to Cambodia.
Included in the collection returned to Cambodia were a who’s-who of Hindu and Buddhist bronze deities, as well as fragments of gold from Pre-Angkor times and an 11th century gold necklace, ceramic pots, a variety of bronze knife handle figures, three bronze bells, a selection of bronze lime-paste containers, a tiny bronze linga and a selection of Buddhas (9), Ganesha (5), Vishnu (2), Shiva, Lokeshvara, Garuda (2), Durga, Lakshmi, gilded Yama, Hunchback, Vishvakarma, Dvarapala, Naga and other figures. A varied and well-curated selection of Khmer antiquities, lovingly collected by the Japanese couple over many years. Now the artifacts are back in their country of origin and incorporated in the National Museum’s collection....Credit By :Andy Brouwer