Standing Shiva (?)

Standing Shiva (?), commonly referred to as Golden Boy in the media, is an 11th-century Angkor sculpture looted from Thailand, acquired by an American museum, deaccessioned and repatriated in December 2023.

Standing Shiva
Golden Boy on display at Bangkok National Museum
Present location	Bangkok National Museum, Phra Nakhon District, Bangkok, Thailand

Description

Standing Shiva (?), is, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “the most complete extant gilded-bronze image from Angor” which may have “served a dual purpose, representing a cult icon for worship in a royal sanctuary and also acting as an ancestor image of a deceased ruler”.^[1] Martin Lerner, who was the Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) from 1972 to 2003, wrote in 1989 that the statue probably depicted a "devaraja", a deified monarch.^[2] The work was donated to the museum in 1988 by art collector Walter H. Annenberg who acquired it from Spink & Son Ltd., London, "by 1988"^[3][1] The statue was believed to have been smuggled out of Thailand by Douglas Latchford.^[4] The sculpture was damaged when it was looted.^[5]

Claim and Repatriation

Visitors seeing the statue as the centrepiece of a special exhibition upon its repatriation in 2024 at Bangkok National Museum

The Cambodian government claimed the restitution of the statue, also known as Golden Boy. But ultimately the Metropolitan Museum of Art restituted it to Thailand, which also claimed it.^[6] The restituted items arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport on May 20, 2024, to be displayed at the Bangkok National Museum.^[5] in 2024 the Thai government signed an agreement with the Metropolitan Museum.^[3][7][8]

See also

• Sripuranthan Natarajan Idol
• Archaeological looting
• Art theft