Returning Southeast Asia's Past
Issued Date
Copyright Date
2021
Resource Type
Language
eng
Book
Book
File Type
application/pdf
No. of Pages/File Size
303
ISBN
9789813251243
Alternative Title(s)
Objects, Museums, and Restitution
Author(s)
Abstract
The last 150 years has seen extensive looting and illicit trafficking of Southeast Asia's cultural heritage. Art objects from the region were distributed to museums and private collections around the world. But in the 21st century, power relations are shifting, a new awareness is growing, and new questions are emerging about the representation and ownership of Southeast Asian cultural material located in the West. This book is a timely consideration of object restitution and related issues across Southeast Asia, bringing together different viewpoints including from museum professionals and scholars in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia—as well as Europe, North America and Australia. The objects themselves are at the centre of most narratives from Khmer art to the Mandalay regalia (repatriated in 1964), Ban Chiang archaeological material and the paintings of Raden Saleh. Legal, cultural, political and diplomatic issues involved in the restitution process are considered in many of the chapters; others look at the ways object restitution is integral to evolving narratives of national identity. The book's editors conclude that restitution processes can transform narratives of loss into opportunities for gain in building knowledge and reconstructing relationships across national borders.
Table of contents
List of Figures - vii, Foreword xiii Acknowledgements - XV, INTRODUCTION: COLLECTING AND RETURNING SOUTHEAST ASIA'S PAST - 1
PARTI: ARTEFACT OWNERSHIP
THE SELLING OF KHMER ARTEFACTS DURING THE COLONIAL ERA: QUESTIONING THE PERCEPTION OF KHMER HERITAGE THROUGH A STUDY OF TRADED KHMER ART PIECES (1920s-1940s) - 41, THE LOOTING OF KOH KER AND THE RETURN OF THE PRASAT CHEN STATUES - 62, WHO OWNS BAN CHIANG? THE DISCOVERY, COLLECTION AND REPATRIATION OF BAN CHIANG ARTEFACTS - 87
PART II: OBJECT BIOGRAPHIES AND COLONIAL LEGACIES
ON THE ROAD BACK TO MANDALAY: THE BURMESE REGALIA - SEIZURE, DISPLAY AND RETURN TO MYANMAR IN 1964 - 111, BRIDGING THE GAPS: THE POLITICS OF DISPLAY AT THE ĐỒNG DƯƠNG BUDDHIST ART GALLERY,
ĐÀ NĂNG MUSEUM OF CHAM SCULPTURE - 139, RESTITUTION AND NATIONAL HERITAGE: (ART) HISTORICAL TRAJECTORIES OF RADEN SALEH’S PAINTINGS - 163, RETURNS BY THE NETHERLANDS TO INDONESIA IN THE 2010S AND THE 1970s
Jos van Beurden - 187
PART III: MUSEUMS, RESTITUTION, AND CULTURAL IDENTITIES
THE RETURN OF CULTURAL PROPERTY AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN POSTCOLONIAL INDONESIA - 213, PLAI BAT: RECLAIMING HERITAGE, SOCIAL MEDIA, AND MODERN NATIONALISM - 235, MYANMAR, MUSEUMS, AND REPATRIATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE - 264
List of Contributors - 288
Index 291