The final two bronzes of those recently installed in three display cabinets at the National Museum for the 75th anniversary celebrations to mark diplomatic relations between the USA and Cambodia, came from private collections in the United States, and which have been repatriated back to Cambodia in recent times. On the front-left side of the cabinet is a beautifully cast bronze statue of Vishnu, which was returned in late July 2024 from the Lindemann family collection, the only bronze in a haul of 33 Khmer antiquities. The extensive collection of billionaire couple George and Frayda Lindemann, kept at their Palm Beach, Florida mansion, first came to light when pictures of their home were published in the Architectural Digest magazine in 2008, and re-posted in 2017. They were sold to Lindemann by Douglas Latchford, who ran an international trafficking network from his headquarters in Bangkok for more than fifty years. They were purchased over several decades by Lindemann senior, who’s believed to have paid at least USD20+ million for them. In fact, Latchford included three of the Lindemann’s finest bronze pieces in his 2011 book, Khmer Bronzes, though only the four-armed bronze of the Hindu god Vishnu has found its way back home, posing the obvious question as to the current whereabouts of the other bronzes. One clue to their provenance may lie in the 1997 brochure published by Spink and Son, for an exhibition sale titled A Divine Art: Sculpture of South East Asia, at their upmarket art dealership in swanky St James’s, London. The bronze Vishnu was included in the sale with the Spinks and Latchford partnership inexorably linked to shady practices over decades. In addition, the Lindemann’s were close acquaintances of Latchford and his associate Martin Lerner, and they donated some art pieces to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, where Lerner was the curator.
The description of the bronze Vishnu in the Latchford & Emma Bunker authored book, Khmer Bronzes, is as follows: ‘Several significant large bronzes remain from the Pre Rup period (under King Rajendravarman II in the middle of the tenth-century), displaying a mixture of archaistic Bakheng and Koh Ker styles. Most Pre Rup-style bronzes are less hieratic than earlier tenth-century bronzes and technically superb. A late Pre Rup-style bronze Vishnu image on an integrally cast base is portrayed with the left leg placed slightly ahead of the right leg, lending the figure a relaxed naturalistic appearance. The deity, identified by his attributes, the chakra, conch, mace, and lotus bud, wears a tiered square headdress with one corner aligned with the face plane, an earlier version of the headdress that distinguishes the slightly later tenth-century Lakshmi in the James Clark Collection (a separate bronze sold by Latchford to Clark). A royal diadem is attached at the back by ribbons tied in a square knot, imitating a real gold example. Vishnu is clothed in a sampot chang kben with an overlap at the waist and a draped pocket on the left hip accompanied by a scarf with fishtail terminates arranged so that the outer one is shorter than the inner one that it overlaps – the opposite of the earlier Bakheng-style fishtail panel-arrangement in which the outer, overlapping fishtail panel is longer.’ [Extract from Khmer Bronzes, 2011].
The second bronze, front-right side of the cabinet with the Buddhist Triad in the background, is a bronze of Lokeshvara in excellent condition. It was in August 2022 that the American authorities handed over to Cambodian representatives in New York, twenty-five (25) precious pieces of Khmer art, both in stone and bronze, that were previously in the private collection of American tech billionaire James H Clark. Most of them arrived in Cambodia at the start of 2023, and the remainder, including this Lokeshvara, reached the National Museum in July 2024. Clark obtained his Khmer collection from rogue dealer Douglas Latchford between the years 2003 and 2008, spending around USD35 million to acquire the antiquities. Once US federal authorities provided evidence that they were looted, Clark voluntarily handed over the works of art, for repatriation to Cambodia. Lokeshvara was the common title in Cambodia for the much-loved Bodhisattva (or buddha-to-be) of infinite compassion and mercy by the name of Avalokiteshvara, which translates as the Lord who looks in every direction. Large free-standing sandstone sculptures of this supreme deity were positioned in prominent population areas far and wide across the kingdom, whether the sculptures were the spectacular examples of the Radiating Lokeshvara, or the equally substantial (non-Radiating) Lokeshvara. Smaller bronze variations were also popular as they were more portable and were often part of a triad including Prajnaparamita and Buddha sheltering under Naga (Muchalinda). Easily identifiable by the seated Amitabha Buddha at the front of his chignon, Lokeshvara became much more prominent under the reign of King Jayavarman VII at the end of the twelfth century, who the king associated with his late father. This copper-alloy example has four arms, some had two, others eight, and he holds four specific attributes; the right lower hold a lotus and the right upper, a rosary; the left upper holds a scripture, and the left lower hand cradles a water vase. The body is adorned with a pectoral necklace of lotus flowers and upper arm bands, bracelets, pendant earrings and anklets. Under the chignon headdress, the face has large lips, almond-shaped eyes and a third eye in the forehead. The short sampot sits high on the waist, with a belt with hanging pendants and has a tapering fishtail central fold, both front and back. The style fits neatly into the Bayon art style characteristic of the king’s reign
.Credit By :Andy Brouwer
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