Provincial
Museum Survey
The collections of the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh
are famous, but few people know that there are at least 25 other
sites throughout Cambodia where significant numbers of sculptures
are held. For the most part these valuable artifacts are undocumented.
Without inventories, the collections are vulnerable to theft,
and their place in the Khmer cultural context is uncertain.
In 2004, FOKCI began funding a
project organized by the National Museum in Phnom Penh to survey
these provincial collections, prepare an inventory of the works,
and train personnel in the rural areas in methods of conservation
and display. An equally important objective of the project is
training Cambodians in methods for surveying, inventorying and
cataloguing the collections of these provincial museums. The project
is progressing. To date, there has been preliminary photography
of more than 2000 objects, mostly ceramics, in Banteay Meanchey. |