Off the wire
• Zhang only Chinese player left in Australian Open main draw, after Zheng loses  • Indian stocks open higher  • 2nd LD Writethru: 12th National Congress of Vietnamese communist party opens  • China's Monkey King sharpens eyes to search for dark matter  • China's leading economist upholds market-oriented mechanism for supply-side reform  • Brazil confirms five more babies killed by Zika virus  • Sporting Lisbon eye Brazil striker Damiao  • Growth in New Zealand manufacturing sector surges in last December  • Feature: Chinese blue helmets consistent contributor to peace in Middle East  • Venezuelan journalist possibly murdered by hitman: official  
You are here: 　 Home

Cambodia exhibites looted statue head returned by France to public

Xinhua, January 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

A 47-kilogram head of the Harihara statue, a deity that combines aspects of the Vishnu and Shiva gods, was reattached to its life-sized body and exhibited to the public at the National Museum in Phnom Penh on Thursday.

France's Guimet Museum returned the head of the statue that was taken from a Cambodian temple 130 years ago to Cambodia on Tuesday.

"The head and the body of the statue had been separated for 130 years. Today, it is a historical milestone that they are reunited,"said Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet Minister Sok An on Thursday.

Pierre Baptiste, a representative from the Guimet Museum, said the head of the statue was taken from Cambodia and shipped to France between 1882 and 1883.

The full statue could also be taken for display in France in the future.

Numerous Cambodian artifacts had been stolen and illegally trafficked out of Cambodia during the 1970s when the country fell into civil war.

In the past three years, auction houses and museums in the United States had returned six looted ancient statues to Cambodia, while Thailand returned 16 smuggled ancient treasures to the country.

Also, in October last year, a Norwegian private collector returned two Khmer artifacts--the 9th century "Head of Shiva God" and the 12th century "Head of Male Divinity"to Cambodia. Enditem