Posted on 03/04/2005 12:17:00 AM PST by nickcarraway
Repatriating a centuries-old crown from the United States would only be possible by buying it from the Philadelphia Museum, which says it was obtained legitimately at an auction, a senior official said Thursday.
Fine Arts Department director-general, Arak Sanghitkul said that as the museum reportedly bought the crown at an auction in 1972, the country must buy back the crown, if it can be proved that it originally came from Thailand.
Arak said that, although the museum’s brochure states that the ancient crown comes from Wat Ratburana in Ayutthaya, negotiations to regain the crown are complicated, as there are many steps required to prove its origin.
“Nobody knows for sure what artefacts were in the Wat Ratburana cache,” he said.
The assumption now is that the crown might have originated from there because the form and decoration resemble that used in the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya period, according to archaeologists.
Arak said the department had contacted the US museum to allow a team from Thailand to ex-amine it.
The crown is on display in San Francisco at an exhibition entitled, “The Kingdom of Siam, The Art of Central Thailand 1350-1800”.
Khunying Dhipavadee Meksawan, permanent secretary to the Culture Ministry, said
She would discuss the issue with the permanent secretary for Foreign Affairs, the director-general of the Fine Arts Department and other experts to draw up an action plan for the return of the crown.
Published on Mar 03 , 2005
The government is to mobilise experts from across the country in an attempt to prove that a gold crown, currently in the possession of a US museum, once belonged to an Ayutthaya-period king, in a bid to see the item returned to Thailand.
The crown is now on display at an exhibition entitled “The Kingdom of Siam, The Art of Central Thailand 1350 – 1800” in San Francisco.
Its striking resemblance to an Ayutthaya-period crown at a museum in Thailand’s ancient former capital prompted the authorities to take action.
“We need to substantiate our claim that the crown belongs to Thailand [before making] a request to get it back,” Culture Minister Anurak Chureemas said yesterday.
He said a committee to get the crown back had already been formed. Permanent secretaries of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Culture Ministry co-chair the body, which includes the Fine Arts Department’s director-general Arak Sanghitkul, historians, archaeologists and legal experts.
Arak said the government would negotiate with relevant agencies in a bid to bring back the royal regalia, if it can be proved it came from Thailand.
“If necessary, we will buy it back,” he added.
Arak added that the Philadelphia Museum had bought the crown at an auction in 1972.
Somlak Charoenpot, director at the Office of the National Museum, said a police report suggested that thieves had stolen many Ayutthaya-period crowns from a cache at Rat Burana Temple in 1956.
She said that when the Fine Arts Department opened the cache in 1957, only two crowns remained inside.
Subongkot Thongthongthip, director at the Chao Sam Phraya Museum in Ayutthaya, said she believed the gold crown on display in San Francisco was one of the many valuable items stolen from the museum.
“Until now, we have been able to retrieve 20 per cent of what was stolen from the cache. If we get more stolen items back, we will be able to [get] a clearer picture of the dynasty reigning [during] the Ayutthaya period,” she said.
Royal Ayutthaya-period treasures that have been recovered are now on display at the Chao Sam Phraya Museum.
Puangchompoo Prasert,
Sucheera Pinijparakarn
The Nation
Ping.
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