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An exciting exhibition in Berlin awakes a plea for the return of stolen
treasures

Photos:
http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3D9298763


FOR many, the word Angkor evokes a single temple packed with tourists =
eager
to see what's left of a corner of Asia's ancient past. =93Angkor: Sacred
Heritage of Cambodia=94, an exhibition in Berlin, corrects this =
impression.
Spanning more than 1,000 years of Hindu- and Buddhist-inspired =
art=97stone
sculptures, a handful of stunning bronzes and a coda of wooden =
statues=97the
show makes clear that Angkor was a sophisticated complex led by a =
succession
of kings who held sway over the Khmer people and hundreds of square =
miles of
land studded with beautiful art created for the glory of the gods.=20

Gollings, St Kilda, Australien

Hevajra, a Buddhist deity, graces BerlinThere are two stories that =
unfold in
the cool lofty rooms of Berlin's 19th-century Martin-Gropius-Bau =
museum=97a
far cry from the sweaty heat of the National Museum of Phnom Penh, which =
has
lent many of the exhibits. First, are the splendid sculptures dominated =
by a
procession of the Hindu deities, Vishnu and Shiva, plus Harihara, who
represents a mixture of both. One of the most striking is the serene =
face
and upper body of Vishnu in a sleeping pose, an 11th-century fragment of
what is believed to have been the largest bronze statue ever cast in
Cambodia.


The second story is less obvious and probably unintended by the show's
organisers. It is to do with the wholesale looting of the temples that =
began
when the French swept into Angkor 150 years ago. In the style of =
European
colonisers of the period, acquisitive French explorers strapped prize
statues onto the backs of locals for the trip out of the jungle, then =
loaded
them onto rafts for the journey down the Mekong river for dispatch to =
Paris.
Many ended up as the core of the collection of Asian art at Paris's =
Mus=E9e
Guimet.=20

More shocking has been the rape of Khmer art since Cambodia's =
independence.
Little free-standing statuary is left at the temples. Cambodian and Thai
soldiers, acting for well-organised rings, have hacked at much of it =
leaving
pedestals empty, walls with holes and, in some cases, headless and =
armless
torsos.=20

Unfortunately, as a star statue in Berlin shows, possessions of the =
National
Museum in Phnom Penh were not always safe, either. A well-girthed Shiva,
clasping a lotus in one outstretched hand, and his diminutive wife, Uma, =
in
the other is placed prominently in one of the Berlin rooms. But Uma's =
head
is missing. The Berlin curators don't say so on their description, but =
her
head was stolen=97literally hacked off=97when the piece was on show at =
the Phnom
Penh museum in the 1970s.=20

Security, upkeep and finance have all greatly improved at the museum =
since
then. Indeed, the sculptures look a little lost away from their usual
habitat in the more informal setting of Phnom Penh. There, the galleries
open on to a courtyard filled with coconut palms and vermillion flowers,
allowing a visitor to daydream about the landscape where the original
artists of Angkor worked.

In their temporary home in Berlin, the sculptures are given descriptions
that are a little thin. A visitor would do well to invest in =93Art and
Architecture of Cambodia=94, a history by Helen Ibbitson Jessup, the =
curator
of the blockbuster Khmer exhibition that took place at Washington's =
National
Gallery of Art in 1997, which is available at the museum bookstore.=20

With the Phnom Penh collection now recognised as a great repository of =
Khmer
art, might some collectors consider repatriating at least part of their
booty to its rightful place? Many possessors of stolen Khmer art argue =
that
it is safer in their hands than it would be in Cambodia, but this may no
longer be the case. Where, for a start, is Uma's head?=20



=93Angkor: Sacred Heritage of Cambodia=94 is at Martin-Gropius-Bau, =
Berlin,
until July 29th. It is then at Museum Rietberg, Zurich, from August 19th
until December 2nd.

http://www.economist.com/

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