On December 15, 2023, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art announced its intention to deaccession an 11th-century gilded bronze statue which had been a highlight of the Southeast Asia holdings at the MET since its acquisition in 1988. Thought to represent an 11th-century Khmer monarch in association with his preferred divinity, Shiva, the statue is considered an exceptional example of the ancient Khmer imperial tradition of statuary portraiture.
The statue’s physical return, to Thailand, triggered an extraordinary outburst of nationalist fervour on both sides of the border. As the coveted statue settled into the Bangkok National Museum, tensions between Cambodia and Thailand simmered – until exploding again one year on, this time in deadly conflict at ancient Khmer temple sites along the border. As of August 2026, the two nation-states remain in a volatile stand-off over responsibilities for care and suffering in the heritage-rich borderlands.
You will meet:
Professor Ashley Thompson is currently the Hiram W. Woodward Chair in Southeast Asian Art at SOAS University of London. She is a graduate from of Université de Paris 8, SFHEA, and Harvard University. Ashley is a specialist in Southeast Asian Art Histories, with particular expertise on Cambodia.
She maintains a focus on premodern Cambodian arts and literatures and complements this with more punctual work on the contemporary period and the arts of the larger Southeast Asian region. Through recent work on restitution in Southeast Asia, Ashley has begun to develop explicitly decolonial perspectives, including analyses of ecologies encompassing the human and the more-than-human, the latter ranging from the animal to the vegetal to the ancestral-spiritual to AI.
Recent publications include Decoloniality and the Purchase of the Premodern: Views from Southeast Asian Fields, Special Issue of Art History, Editor’s Introduction and Chapter ‘On Decoloniality and Restitution: Invoking Ganesha in Cambodia Today’.
Participate
The event is free and open to all. Sign up via the link below.
Welcome!
Accessibility during your visit
If you need an elevator or any other form of assistance when visiting us, please call this number upon arrival: + 47 90 13 17 55.
About Scene Domus Bibliotheca
Scene Domus Bibliotheca is the University of Oslo's dialogue and communication arena, located at The University Square in downtown Oslo. Here, you can participate in debates, conversations, and listen to exciting lectures.
Curious about what's happening here? Follow Universitetsplassen - UiO on Facebook for exciting updates.