Newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia H.E. W. Patrick Murphy paid a visit to the National Museum yesterday, according the embassy.
“A true treasure trove of artifacts at Cambodia’s National Museum, including looted artifacts that our two countries have worked together to bring home again. Glad to learn about the Kingdom’s rich cultural heritage!” said the U.S. ambassador.
The National Museum of Cambodia is located on Street 13 in central Phnom Penh, next to the Royal Palace.
Originally, it was inaugurated during Khmer New Year on April 13, 1920 in the presence of His Majesty the King Sisowath.
It is one of the world’s greatest collections of Khmer cultural material including sculpture, ceramics and ethnographic objects from the prehistoric, pre-Angkorian, Angkorian and post-Angkorian periods.
On current estimates there are 1,877 works of art on display in the museum galleries with a further 12,320 items secured in the basement storeroom. This transposes into a grand total of 14,197 works with a breakdown between works on exhibition (some 15.2 percent) and those in storage (some 84.8 percent).
There is one special exhibition presently on show in the museum – ‘Post-Angkorian Buddha’ that opened in 2000.
