Cambodia Breaking News (Phnom Penh): On July 5, 2019, a Japanese woman, Fumiko Takakowa, returned 85 Khmer artifacts to Cambodia. There was an official ceremony to hand over the artifacts led by Mr. Prak Sundara, the secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, in the National Museum in Phnom Penh.

These artifacts included Hindu and Buddhist statues, ornaments, bronze artifacts, decorative pieces, gold necklaces, ceramics, etc., which date from prehistoric times, pre-Angkor, Angkor, and post-Angkor periods.
Mrs. Fumiko Takakowa decided to return them to Cambodia as a dedication to her late husband's soul.

The Ministry of Culture in the name of the Cambodian people expressed their appreciation and thanks to Mrs. Fumiko Takakowa for donating all these artifacts to the Royal Government and the Cambodian people. And Mr Sundara also thanked Mr. Masamoto Fosino for coordinating and sending the artifacts to Cambodia.

The returning of antiques to their homeland is a gesture of the appreciation of the valuable cultural heritage of humanity and shows the improvement of ethics of ancient collectors.
Thus the Ministry of Culture encourages all individuals, museums, and companies, as well as other institutes around the world that are showing or saving the Cambodia artifacts to please work with the Ministry to return them to Cambodia.

Is there a story behind their acquisition?
Are they now to become part of the royal museum collection?

Yeah. I'd be curious how she got them. Her husband might have been an archeologist or something. Either way, a quick glance at the items and I suspect she took better care of them than the National Museum does/will. Some University might be able to store them, but again, a bit of a waste as they won't be displayed or properly kept. I wonder which of the artefact(s) is prehistoric.

Her husband Prof. Dr. Mori Mita Takahawa "loved khmer art" and bought them on the Japanese art market over past 20 years.
Not sure what kind of professor he was, but I can find no record of him working in Cambodia.

The antiques include Buddhist and Hindu statues, decorative items, bronze statues of animals, gold necklaces and ceramic items.
Cambodia has an interesting, and still largely mysterious, bronze age history.

Cambodia has so much "stuff" and so few resources. The cataloguing, storage and display of its cultural heritage is not as primitive as it sometimes appears. Many cambodians are now trained and dedicated to this work.

We could say "Thank God for the French" and their scholarship - but then we remember that scholarship was for the purpose of wholesale plunder - both by academia and by individuals.
We do say "Thank God for UNESCO", unreservedly, for its crucial guidance and practical assistance, in preserving Cambodia's cultural legacy.

SternAAlbifrons wrote: We could say "Thank God for the French" and their scholarship - but then we remember that scholarship was for the purpose of wholesale plunder - both by academia and by individuals.

How exactly did the French plunder? I don't think they actually have that much Khmer art in French museums (though I've never actually been to the Louvres). Whatever they do have, one could argue was protected from years of Cambodian self-plunder and desecration during the wars. As for preservation, things are definitely better now, I think coding and classification is well-done, so is ancient text reading. However, preservation isn't exactly great. Have you ever been to the National Archives? I have, and they let you touch 80 year old newspapers with your bare hands... They keep them in cardboard boxes with zero temperature/humidity control. So for all the usual huff-puff rhetoric about Angkor Wat and all that which almost any Khmer will talk about (especially politicians), in truth, they actually prioritize putting an Amazon Cafe on public land instead of investing in the preservation of their own culture, history and identity. Just looking at the stands and cases some of those objects were kept in, you can tell the Japanese guy cared for them dutifully. Hopefully local authorities do the same.

I wonder how they ended up on the Japanese art market, and whether or not they're all originals. Must have made their way on the black market in the 80s and 90s or something. Either way, if not legally acquired, they should be returned (like that Sotheby's piece). It's just a shame that there's no real museums here for smaller items like those.

“Louvre“

Oops! And this from someone who speaks French fluently! :-/

Ooh la la!

Disappointed there's none of those wooden frogs that you rub with a stick to make the frog sound.

Japanese collector returns ancient artifacts over 1,000 years old to Cambodia
by Sopheng Cheang
AP Jul 6, 2019

Photo AP

PHNOM PENH - Millennium-old Cambodian artifacts displayed in a Japanese collector’s home for two decades have been returned to the Southeast Asian country’s National Museum.

The 85 artifacts are mostly small bronze items and include statues of Buddha and the Hindu god Shiva, plus jars, ceramics and jewelry. Cambodia’s Culture Ministry says some items were older than the Angkor era, which began around 800. Others date from the Angkor era or just after it ended in the late 14th century.

Cambodia has made intense efforts to recover artifacts looted during its civil war in the 1970s.

At an official reception for the artifacts Friday, Prak Sonnara, secretary of state for the Culture and Fine Art Ministry, praised the Japanese collector for voluntarily returning the artifacts. He said her actions set a good example for other countries and collectors to follow.

The collector, Fumiko Takakuwa, told reporters after the handover ceremony that she and her husband had bought the items in Japan and liked to collect and display them in their home. But she knew they were originally from Cambodia and that is why she returned them.

“My husband has said before he passed away that those artifacts have to be returned back to Cambodia, and today I am happy that I did,” Takakuwa said.

Prak Sonnara said the 85 items were believed to have been stolen from Cambodia’s temples during the war, when intense looting occurred and valuables were smuggled through neighboring Thailand.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/ ... SDb0nFS_IU