Heritage site
Prasat Chen
Prasat Chen is a tenth-century temple dedicated to Vishnu at Koh Ker (កោះកេរ្តិ៍), in Preah Vihear province, Cambodia.[1][2][3] Its gateways once held large sandstone statues from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Looters took them during the civil wars of the 1960s and 1970s, and from 2013 holders in the United States, among them museums and auction houses, returned several of them to Cambodia.[4][5]
The temple
Prasat Chen has three square laterite sanctuaries facing east.[2] It is one of the marker temples laid out in line with Prasat Thom (ប្រាសាទធំ), the central temple of Koh Ker, to form the shape of a mandala. Prasat Chen for Vishnu, Prasat Banteay Pir Choan for Brahma and Prasat Thom for Shiva together stand for the Trimurti, the three great Hindu gods.[2] The International Council on Monuments and Sites names Prasat Chen among the Koh Ker temples richest in sculpture, in the large and dynamic Koh Ker style.[2]
The statues
Nine statues in the western gopura, or gateway, showed a wrestling match from the Mahabharata between Bhima and Duryodhana. Onlookers stood around them: Bhima's four Pandava brothers, then Krishna, his brother Balarama and one more warrior.[5] The eastern gopura held other figures, including a Hanuman and a Rama.[5][6]
The United States government's complaint says the Duryodhana and the Bhima were taken from Prasat Chen in 1972 by an organized looting network. Their heads were cut off and carried away first and the bodies later, and both went to a dealer in Bangkok.[4] The Duryodhana was hacked off its pedestals, which stayed in place at the temple.[3]
Returns
- Two kneeling Pandavas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York returned two figures from the wrestling scene in June 2013.[3][5]
- Duryodhana. Sotheby's offered the statue for sale in New York in March 2011, and the United States stopped the sale on Cambodia's behalf. Cambodian officials said the pedestals left at Koh Ker fit the statue's feet.[3] A federal judge approved a settlement on December 16, 2013, and a ceremony in New York on May 7, 2014 marked its return.[4]
- Bhima and Balarama. In May 2014 the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena said it would give its Bhima, held since 1976, to Cambodia, and Christie's agreed to return a Balarama it had sold twice before.[5]
- Hanuman. The Cleveland Museum of Art bought a Hanuman in 1982. In 2014 archaeologists found pedestals at the east gate of Prasat Chen that matched it, and the museum returned it in May 2015.[7][6] It went to the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh.[7]
In May 2014, three of the nine wrestling-scene statues had not come back: the whereabouts of one were unknown and two were with private collectors. A Rama torso from the eastern gopura was then at the Denver Art Museum.[5] The head of the United Nations cultural agency's office in Cambodia said that the Ministry of Culture planned to rebuild the Prasat Chen tableau at the National Museum and set the returned statues in it.[5]
References 7
- ↑ Radio Free Asia (Khmer), សង្គ្រាមដណ្ដើមរាជ្យគ្នារបស់ព្រះរាជាមួយចំនួននៅសម័យអង្គរ (ភាគ១១) (April 9, 2014)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 International Council on Monuments and Sites, Koh Ker: Archaeological Site of Ancient Lingapura or Chok Gargyar, evaluation (2023)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 The Cambodia Daily, Sotheby's Ends Battle, Will Return Khmer Statue (December 14, 2013)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Cambodian officials recognize HSI for return of ancient sandstone sculpture (May 6, 2014)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 The Cambodia Daily, Two More Looted Statues Set to Be Returned (May 8, 2014)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art Returns Khmer Sculpture and Enters Agreement on Cultural Cooperation (May 2015)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 The Cambodia Daily, US Museum Returns Hanuman Statue to Cambodia (May 11, 2015)
Know something we're missing? Send a tip