Kneeling Females in bronze:

Kneeling Females in bronze:

There is something very questionable about the bronze sculptures of two kneeling females housed in American museums. In May of this year, one of them was sent to Thailand by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Another currently sits in the Asia Society collection, also in New York. Both were sold to the museum or their donors in the early 1970s by characters whose involvement in the murky world of Southeast Asian art in that period raises a series of red flags. Doris Wiener sold the kneeling deity to The Met in 1972, while Spink and Son sold the Asia Society female to John D Rockefeller III in 1973, which was gifted to the museum a year after his death in 1978. Wiener, Spinks and Rockefeller were known to be clients and close associates of Douglas Latchford, the Bangkok-based trafficker of Khmer artworks for over five decades. The connection is significant. They are just two examples of numerous artworks in Western museums with a provenance ownership that demands intense scrutiny and examination with a fine-tooth comb. The bronze returned to Thailand now sits in the Bangkok museum, though its origin remains unknown as far as I’m aware, while the Asia Society bronze continues to be on show in New York.

A third outstanding example of a bronze kneeling female can be seen at the National Museum in Phnom Penh, without any questions raised as to her provenance. The bronze, showing a female of high-standing in the Khmer court, was found at the Bayon temple at Angkor in November 1921, and at that time was minus her left hand. This was later located and reattached to complete the exhibit you see today, with her right knee raised and the left touching the ground. Both arms are held up symmetrically at head height and would’ve held a mirror or perhaps an inscribed object. The style, complete with jewelry, sampot and crown, is dated to the beginning of the 12th century. The Asia Society female, a beautiful bronze from the end of the 11th century, also has her hands above her head, but without a crown or diadem is also unlikely to be royal figure. She is positioned on both knees and a round hole in her head suggests she may’ve once held an offering of some sort. Acquired by John D Rockefeller III from Spink and Son in 1973, his collection is one of the most notable in the United States and has more than a dozen masterpiece-quality Khmer works of art.

 

Credit By :Andy Brouwer