Art Institute of Chicago Repatriates 12th-Century Temple Column to Thailand

The Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) has announced that it will return to Thailand a sandstone pilaster dating to the twelfth century. The intricately carved architectural object was previously thought to have come from Cambodia, but provenance research revealed that it had in fact served as a vertical structural part of a doorframe in the Phanom Rung temple in eastern Thailand. Set on the rim of a volcano, the temple is one of the country’s most important monuments erected by the Khmer people, an ethnic group native to what is now Cambodia.

Made of red sandstone, the pilaster depicts the Hindu god Krishna lifting Mount Govardhana, a sacred site in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. According to Hindu scripture, the deity saved the hill and its resident villagers from a flood brought about by the Vedic god Indra. The artefact is the second from the temple to be repatriated by the AIC: In 1988, the museum returned to Thailand a large fragment of the Vishnu lintel, part of a horizontal doorway support thought to have been looted from the temple in in the early 1960s.

“This act serves as a model for ethical collecting practices and strengthens the bonds of cultural respect and collaboration between Thailand and the Art Institute of Chicago,” said Phnombootra Chandrajoti, director-general of the Fine Arts Department, the Kingdom of Thailand, in a statement. “This valuable artifact is from one of the most significant archeological sites in Thailand and we are glad it is returning to its motherland.”

“We are grateful for our close collaboration with the Fine Arts Department in Thailand and are honored to take this step in what I hope is a long and productive partnership,” said AIC president and director James Rondeau in a statement. “We are deeply committed to fostering an ongoing relationship and continuing to learn from each other.”