Knocked-off Kneeling Statues Repatriated

The Independent's Andrew Buncombe wrote an article published today about the Cambodian statue repatriation ('Treasures of the temple raiders return home to Cambodia', Tuesday 11 June 2013). He was trying to get in touch with me for some comments, but Tuesdays are a difficult day to get in touch with me, so he gave up. The article however contains more or less what I'd have said anyway. Good.

There is an AFP video on You Tube here:

Posted by AFP

I am a bit puzzled why the Buddhist monks are there to welcome figures from a Shivaist (unless I am mistaken) temple. Oh well, they add some solemnity I suppose. While it is difficult to make out the details, I am intrigued by the packing method shown, there does not seem to be much protection from lateral shifting. In particular having a brace at the neck seems an odd conservation choice, given that the head and torso were bought separated. Still, they seem to have arrived safely.

Still very little explanation of what "new information" the Met had that led them to give them back, the fresh crowbar marks at the base where they were snapped off seems pretty good pointers to how they got on the market, right from the beginning.

Other coverage all over the Internet, like here and here.