Statue fragments returned to Cleveland museum

Looted Khmer artworks tend to travel in one direction these days – from Western countries back to Cambodia. But on Friday, the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts announced it was returning part of a priceless sculpture dating from the AD 600s to the US museum that repatriated it to the Kingdom 10 years ago.

New 3D digital technology had revealed that the fragment, comprising Krishna’s hand, a strut and a supporting panel, did not belong to a statue of the god housed in Phnom Penh’s National Museum, as originally thought, but to another in the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The sculpture detail was one of nine pieces sent to Cambodia by the US museum in 2005, which were incorporated into two Krishna statues being reconstructed by the National Museum at the time.

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/statue-fragments-returned-cleveland-museum