Bangkok (Thailand). If restitution of cultural property aims primarily to repair damage, it can also lead to opportunities. The return in May 2024 of two bronze statues from the 11th century to the National Museum in Bangkok by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York gave rise to a museographical, academic and diplomatic event. Upon their return to Thailand, the two sculptures were exhibited in a specific room of the museum, in a recently renovated wing.
Coming from the province of Buriram, located northeast of Bangkok, these two works, remarkably well preserved, had been looted before joining the Met collections. They entered it respectively by purchase in 1972 from Doris Wiener, an antiques dealer, and by donation in 1988 from the American collector and magnate Walter H. Annenberg.
An “ad hoc” museography
The museum curators have designed a museography ad hocplacing the most imposing statue in the center of the room, a standing figure representing a deified king in the image of Shiva. This staging combines it with other works from the same period, from the permanent collections. The second sculpture, representing a kneeling woman prostrating herself, her hands clasped in a gesture reminiscent of wai Thai, is exhibited in the same room. As soon as it opened to the public, there was an uninterrupted line of visitors. This fervor is also linked to the spiritual aura of such pieces whose religious significance remains very important to Thais.
Organized last May, an academic and ceremonial component completed this heritage repatriation, with a conference program presented by John Guy, curator at the Met. This close collaboration between the two museums was not self-evident, given the legal proceedings which preceded these restitutions: “It was following an agreement between the American justice system and the Met that the latter decided to return the statues to Thailand”underlines Étienne Clément, jurist specializing in international law and former director at UNESCO.
A framework agreement for the future
Already in 1988 the Art Institute of Chicago returned to Thailand a precious lintel representing Vishnu, stolen in the 1960s from the Khmer temple of Prasat Hin Phanom Rung, located in the same province of Buriram. Highly publicized at the time, this episode had a strong impact on public opinion. The 2024 agreement once again links a private American museum, the Met, to the Thai government. This time, a framework agreement for collaboration and exchange accompanies the restitutions. Signed by Max Hollein, director of the Met, and Nitaya Kanokmongkol, director of national museums within the Thai Ministry of Culture, it provides that all disputes between Thailand and the American museum will be resolved bilaterally and amicably, without recourse judicial or intervention of a third party organization. This point is important because the New York museum holds other cultural property that Thailand wishes to recover.
Unlike Cambodia, China and South Korea, Thailand has not yet signed the UNESCO convention against illicit trafficking in cultural property. The country prefers to adopt a case-by-case approach, while responding to requests from signatory countries when a trafficking case has passed through its territory. The only country in Southeast Asia never to have been colonized and a long-time military and economic partner of the United States, Thailand does not carry the understandable bitterness of formerly colonized countries toward former colonial powers in the settlement looting, as Étienne Clément points out. This Thai case shows that the restitution of cultural property is no longer limited to simple repair of damage and can become a lever for cooperation between museums.
