{"id":142050,"date":"2026-03-18T20:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T20:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/142050\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T20:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T20:49:13","slug":"reading-public-museum-voluntarily-returns-10th-century-sculpture-back-to-cambodia-reading-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/142050\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Public Museum voluntarily returns 10th\u2011century sculpture back to Cambodia | Reading Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ancient<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Geoffrey K. Fleming, Director and CEO of the Reading Public Museum and Scott A. Schweigert, Curator with repatriated stone Khmer sculpture.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of The Foundation for the Reading Public Museum<\/p>\n

READING, Pa. – The Foundation for the Reading Public Museum has decided to return a 10th\u2011 or 11th\u2011century Cambodian Khmer stone sculpture to the Kingdom of Cambodia.<\/p>\n

According to a press release from the museum, the repatriation was done in close cooperation with the Cambodian government and its Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts.<\/p>\n

Officials say the sculpture came to the museum as part of a recent bequest. When it arrived, staff immediately flagged it as a potentially high\u2011risk antiquity and set it aside for further study. They soon determined it was likely looted from its original site and chose not to add it to the museum\u2019s permanent collection, the release says.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnsuring the proper ownership of antiquities from around the globe is a responsibility that the Reading Public Museum takes very seriously,\u201d said Geoffrey K. Fleming, Director and CEO of the Foundation. \u201cReturning this sculpture without delay reflects our commitment to ethical stewardship and international heritage laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

The museum says the return was made possible with help from legal and cultural experts who specialize in the recovery of Cambodia\u2019s stolen history. By working directly with Cambodian officials, including the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, the Foundation ensures that this important remnant of the Khmer Empire will once again be part of the Kingdom’s national cultural narrative. Many Khmer artworks were taken from temples and other sites during political unrest in the 1960s and 1970s, experts say.<\/p>\n

Bradley J. Gordon, an attorney and advisor in Phnom Penh, praised the museum\u2019s actions, saying Cambodia is \u201cdeeply touched\u201d by the museum\u2019s decision to investigate the sculpture\u2019s origins and initiate its return. He encouraged other museums and private collectors to follow Reading\u2019s example.<\/p>\n

The Reading Public Museum says it remains committed to transparency in how it acquires and researches objects, and to supporting global efforts to protect and restore cultural heritage.<\/p>\n

Read Gordon\u2019s full statement below:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is tremendously gratifying to see the Foundation for the Reading Public Museum step forward and reach out to us. On behalf of the Kingdom of Cambodia, we are deeply touched by the ethical responsibility shown by the Museum staff in assessing the sculpture\u2019s origins and initiating its return. We hope the repatriation of this Angkorian-period statue heralds a new chapter of research and insight into Cambodia\u2019s rich cultural past. We applaud the Foundation\u2019s leadership and hope their transparency serves as a powerful example. We encourage other museums and private collectors holding Khmer antiquities to follow Reading\u2019s lead by examining their own collections. By coming forward voluntarily, you join a world-wide effort to heal the wounds of the past and ensure that Cambodia’s stolen history is restored to its rightful home for future generations.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geoffrey K. Fleming, Director and CEO of the Reading Public Museum and Scott A. Schweigert, Curator with repatriated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[65014,65011,7499,65016,65010,65012,65015,65013,128,130,129,5048,65009],"class_list":["post-142050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-angkorian-period","tag-cambodia","tag-cultural-heritage","tag-international-cooperation","tag-khmer-sculpture","tag-looted-art","tag-ministry-of-culture-and-fine-arts","tag-museum-ethics","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-reading-public-museum","tag-repatriation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}