Standing Shiva (?)
| Standing Shiva | |
|---|---|
Golden Boy on display at the Bangkok National Museum | |
| Material | Gilded bronze |
| Height | 130 cm (51 in) |
| Present location | Bangkok National Museum, Thailand |
Standing Shiva, commonly referred to in the media as Golden Boy, is an 11th-century gilded-bronze sculpture from the Angkor period. The statue, believed to have been removed from Thailand in the 1970s, was later acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and repatriated in December 2023.
Description
The statue, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "the most complete extant gilded-bronze image from Angkor", which may have "served a dual purpose: representing a cult icon for worship in a royal sanctuary and also acting as an ancestor image of a deceased ruler".[1] Martin Lerner, who served as Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1972 to 2003, wrote in 1989 that the statue probably depicts a "devaraja", a deified monarch.[2] The sculpture was donated to the museum in 1988 by art collector Walter H. Annenberg, who had acquired it from Spink & Son Ltd. in London by that year.[3][1] The statue is believed to have been smuggled out of Thailand by antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford in the mid-1970s.[4] The sculpture sustained damage during the looting.[5]
Claim and repatriation
The statue, known as the Golden Boy, was claimed by both the Cambodian government and Thailand. The Metropolitan Museum of Art ultimately repatriated it to Thailand.[6] The restituted items arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport on May 20, 2024, to be displayed at the Bangkok National Museum.[5] In 2024, the Thai government signed an agreement with the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[3][7][8]
See also
References
- ^ a b Standing Shiva (?), retrieved 2025-02-11
- ^ "Golden Boy goes home". Apollo Magazine. 2024-05-20. Retrieved 2025-02-17.
Martin Lerner, the former curator at the Met who suggested, in the museum's Fall 1989 acquisitions bulletin, that the figure likely depicts a devaraja, or deified monarch, perhaps the Khmer king Jayavarman VI, 'whose accession took place in 1080'.
- ^ a b "Met Museum signs cultural-property agreement with Thailand and returns two statues". The Art Newspaper. 2024-04-26. Retrieved 2025-02-11.
- ^ Ho, Karen K. (2024-05-21). "Thailand Celebrates Return of 11th Century Sculptures Repatriated by the Met Museum". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2025-02-11.
According to the AFP, Standing Shiva is also known as "Golden Boy" and the bronze object was discovered near the Cambodian border during an archaeological dig more than 50 years ago. The 51-inch statue was believed to have been smuggled out of the country by Latchford in 1975.
- ^ a b English, Khaosod (2024-05-20). "Discoverer of 'Golden Boy' Regrets Damage to Historic Sculpture". Retrieved 2025-02-11.
- ^ Crosbie-Jones, Max (2024-05-20). "Golden Boy goes home". Apollo Magazine. Retrieved 2025-02-17.
When, last December, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced its plan to deaccession 16 Angkorian sculptures, Cambodians and Cambodia watchers were overjoyed, although not altogether surprised. In its press release, the Met said that the pieces were "known by the Museum to be associated with the dealer Douglas Latchford". Some form of action had been anticipated for some time, and certainly since August 2022, when The New York Times had published a report outlining the country's claims to more than a dozen artefacts in Gallery 249, and citing as compelling evidence the recollections of looters and emails handed over by Latchford's daughter after the death of the disgraced art dealer in 2020. There was, however, one startling aspect of the Met's announcement: a gilded-bronze statue listed on its website as a "Standing Shiva (?)", once described as Cambodian until recently, would be going to Thailand instead.
- ^ "Met to return looted treasures to Cambodia, Thailand". Artforum. 2023-12-18. Retrieved 2025-02-11.
- ^ "Returned 'Golden Boy' statue to arrive in Bangkok today". Nation Thailand. 2024-05-20. Retrieved 2025-02-11.