Source: Art Net
Thailand is moving forward with efforts to recover significant cultural heritage pieces from various U.S. art institutions, including the MET and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Among those art pieces are carved stone lintels that are currently at the Asian Art Museum. While Thailand’s government claims that the pieces were illegally acquired, they have not reached out to the U.S. institutions yet. Another piece is currently at the MET, the four-armed Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion, which was purchased by the institution in 1967.
The Executive Director of the Institute for Southeast Asian Archaeology says that it is important that art institutions across the U.S. practice transparency in their past and current acquisitions in order to help clear up a “murky area of the museum world.”
Read Full Story: Art Net