Thai Crown Thief Comes Clean After Nearly 50 Years

[george]

Thai crown thief comes clean after nearly 50 years

BANGKOK: -- A 78-year-old man has confessed to being involved in the robbery of an ancient crown he believes is on display in a US museum and which the Thai government wants returned, a report said Thursday.

Li Kasemsang told the Nation newspaper that he and 20 others raided a temple in the former capital of Ayutthaya in central Thailand in 1956, stealing the crown and other precious items from inside a hollow Buddha image.

"We were surprised to see so many golden objects and Buddha statues. There were swords and crowns. We told ourselves they must have belonged to kings," he was quoted as saying in the English-language daily.

Eight of the group were arrested and some of the items returned, but Li evaded arrest and the crown, believed to be made in 1424, "was passed on until it reached a foreign buyer".

Li blamed his unhappy life, including seven stints in jail on different charges, on his theft.

"My family has never been happy either, no matter how much merit I have tried to make and how much I apologised to the spirits guarding the treasure," he said according to the report.

"I want Thai people to help bring it back to Ayutthaya," he added.

On Wednesday, the foreign affairs ministry said it was setting up a joint committee with the culture ministry to unearth more information about the crown before contacting US authorities to seek its return.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has spearheaded the drive to investigate the crown after seeing a local news report about it.

It is reportedly on display at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum as part of an exhibition showcasing 89 surviving works from the Ayutthaya period, which ended in 1767 when the city was sacked by the Burmese.

--AFP 2005-02-04

[george]

Gold crown 'is definitely Thai', says museums chief

BANGKOK: -- The head of the National Museums Office yesterday confirmed that the contested gold crown currently on display at a San Francisco art gallery is of Thai craftsmanship, and said that the Department of Fine Arts is currently gathering information on the crown to negotiate its return.

Describing the 15th century crown as 'definitely Thai', Mrs. Somlak Charoenphot said that she was currently collecting information to determine whether or not it had been stolen from Wat Ratchaburana in the former capital of Ayutthaya.

Once the government determines that the crown is definitely Thai property, negotiations would begin for its return, she said.

She noted that while neither the US nor Thailand were signatories to a UNESCO convention on cultural heritage, Thailand would do all that it could to ensure that its cultural heritage remains on the Thai soil.

The crown, thought to have been stolen by art thieves in 1956, is currently on display in an Asian art exhibition.

Thailand has approved the display of 60 other ancient artefacts at the San Francisco Museum until May, after which they will be displayed in the Massachusetts-based Peabody Museum for a further three months.

The Department of Fine Arts has sent experts to the US to strictly supervise the transfer.

--TNA 2005-03-05

[Golf]

It's not a crown. It's a kind of a hat for the King of Ayuttaya. The crown would be passed on to the next king and would never be buried.

Golf

Edited March 5, 2005 by Golf