“This is a statue of Nakula, made of gray-yellowish sandstone. It originated from western gate of Prasat Chen, Koh Ker in Kulen district, Preah Vihear Province. This statue was looted from the temple in the 1970s.
Since then, the head and torso were in the possession of different individuals. In 1989, Douglas Latchford donated the torso of the statue to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Later, Raymond Ge and Mila Louise Hanley donated the head. Museum restores reattached the two pieces the same year.
On 11 June 2013, the Metropolitan Museum of Art returned this statue to Cambodia, where it was immediately registered into the collection of the National Museum. Khmer art experts conclude it is in the Koh Ker style of the first half of the 10th century, Angkorian period, during the reign of King Jayavaraman IV from 921 to 941 CE.
This statue was sculpted from one stone block. Here, Nakula sits on his bent left leg with the right knee raised. His left hand rests on the right leg and pros-up the right hand, which touches the left shoulder. The face features a pointed nose, open eyes, a calm smile and a mustache and beard that is recognize by dots from one side of the chin to the other.
He is dressed in what appears to be a short Sampot with a fringe hanging in the front, and wears a wristband, bracelet and a neckband. Nakula sits on a square supporting base. The base has three levels with decorative moldings, large in the center, fly by smaller one on each side. If you want to learn more about the history of the repatriation of Koh Ker statues to Cambodia, please press number 416 and then the Play button./.”