10th-century Khmer statues

CREATION

The pair originated at the Koh Ker temple in a remote jungle area about 120 km northwest of Cambodia's famed temples of Angkor Wat, which are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Koh Ker was an important city for the 10th century Khmer empire, but many of its carvings and statues went missing when Cambodia was torn apart by war.

LOOTED

The Cambodians offered evidence that the works had been improperly removed from the Koh Ker temple complex, 180 miles northwest of Phnom Penh. Among the evidence the officials considered were photographs of the statue’s broken-off bases, which were left behind at the site, and witness statements that the Cambodians have collected suggesting that the statues were intact as recently as 1970.

ON VIEW AT THE MET

The works were presented as separate gifts to the Museum over a period of years.

The head from the first of the pair of reunited Kneeling Attendants was donated in 1987 by Spink & Son Ltd. and Douglas A. Latchford. The second head came as a gift from the late Raymond G. and Milla Louise Handley in 1989.

The two torsos were subsequently donated by Mr. Latchford in 1992.The matching heads and torsos were reassembled by Museum conservators in 1993 and placed on display in the Galleries for South and Southeast Asian Art (Gallery 289) in 1994, where they have remained on view since.

RETURNING HOME

“This is a case in which additional information regarding the Kneeling Attendants has led the museum to consider facts that were not known at the time of the acquisition and to take the action we are announcing today,”
Mr. Campbell said in a statement.

The museum repatriated the life-size sandstone masterworks, which have guarded the doorway to the Met’s Southeast Asian galleries since they opened in 1994. The decision came after months of behind-the-scenes contact between the Met and Cambodian officials.

two Khmer statues(kneeling attendants)

two Khmer statues
(kneeling attendants)