Discovered two 1,500-year-old god statues with the wrong limbs

When conducting conservation work a few decades ago, experts wrongly matched some parts of two Krishna statues in Cambodia and the US.

Conservators at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) and the National Museum of Cambodia (NMC) have decoded a jigsaw puzzle using 3D scanning and modeling technology, Smithsonian reported on November 17. They repaired faulty restorations of two statues depicting the Hindu god Krishna.

Statue of Krishna at the Cleveland Museum of Art when assembled incorrectly (left), when correctly restored (centre), and the statue in the National Museum of Cambodia (right). (Photo: CMA/NMC)

The two statues were carved around the 6th century to decorate man-made cave temples on Mount Phnom Da, southern Cambodia. They are made of dark, polished sandstone and depict Krishna in the form of an 8-year-old boy. Krishna heroically lifted the mountain to protect the village and its inhabitants from the rainstorms of a vengeful god.

When archaeologists unearthed two Krishna statues in the early 20th century, they broke into pieces. An incomplete statue was shipped to Europe and acquired by the CMA in 1973. A few years later, conservationists attached several newly unearthed fragments including thighs, two calves and two feet to the statue. They mistakenly think they fit perfectly.

However, these fragments actually belong to the second Krishna statue, now located at NMC, Phnom Penh. Similar to the "twins" in Cleveland, the Krishna statue in Phnom Penh also has the wrong part.

For years, both statues were displayed with inadequate limbs. Conservationists first realized the mistakes of their predecessors around 2015. Using 3D scanning technology, they discovered two pieces of a large section above the Phnom Penh statue that actually belonged to the Cleveland statue. . The irony is that CMA conservationists tried to put these pieces into the Cleveland statue but failed and sent them to Cambodia in 2005.

After discovering the mistake, experts began to restore both statues. With the help of Case Western Reserve University, they digitally modeled them and rearranged dozens of fragments to determine how they were put together 1,500 years ago.

Sonya Rhie Mace, curator of Indian and Southeast Asian art at CMA, Beth Edelstein, head of object conservation at CMA, and Cambodian colleagues, Sok Soda and Bertrand Porte, collaborated on the in-depth research. wide. In the end, they concluded that the appended lower half of the Cleveland statue did not match the rest of the body.

Currently, the two statues have been restored more precisely. They will be displayed side by side for the first time at CMA's "Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia's Sacred Mountain" exhibition from November 14, 2021 to January 30, 2022.