Ancient bronze statues of the Golden Boy and a kneeling woman have been returned to Thailand after the artefacts were illegally exported to the US in 1975
A 900-year-old statue smuggled out of Thailand by a prominent art dealer in 1975 has finally been returned to the country after being in the possession of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for more than three decades.
The Bangkok Post reported that the 129-centimetre bronze statue known as ‘Golden Boy’, believed to depict the Hindu god Shiva along with a smaller statue of a kneeling woman, arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport yesterday.
The statues were taken to Bangkok’s National Museum, where an official ceremony awaits the returned artefacts before publicly displaying them.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art decided to return the two artefacts after discovering that they were linked to Douglas Latchford, an art dealer who was accused in 2019 of running an extensive network that stole treasures across Southeast Asia.
The Golden Boy believed to be made more than 900 years ago, was smuggled out of Thailand by Latchford in 1975. According to Latchford’s books Khmer Bronze and Khmer Gold, the sculpture was discovered in a village in Buriram province.
The artefact was in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection from 1988 to 2023. The identity of the Golden Boy is still a matter of debate.
Archaeologist Thanongsak Hanwong says the Golden Boy is a statue of King Jayavarman VI, who built the stone Phimai Castle in Buriram, not the god Shiva, as most people believe.
The stolen bronze statues have been returned to Thailand from the US.
Thanongsak, also a committee member for the repatriation of stolen artefacts, said the Golden Boy is more similar in style to the carvings in the Phimai stone castle rather than the Shiva sculptures commonly found in the region.
Thus, the archaeologist believes the artefact is a sculpture of King Jayavarman VI (1080-1107 AD) of the Mahidharapura dynasty. The king built the stone castle of Phimai as the administrative centre of the ancient Khmer Empire.
The findings indicate that the Khmer Empire flourished on the Korat Plateau and then spread to the Cambodian city of Siem Reap, disproving the earlier view that the empire spread to the Khorat Plateau from Cambodia.
The Ministry of Culture and the Department of Fine Arts will hold an official repatriation ceremony this afternoon at the Issar Vinitchai Throne Hall at the National Museum in Bangkok.
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