SOAS team awarded grant of over £250,000 for Southeast Asian art restitution project

The Getty Foundation has awarded Professor Ashley Thompson and Dr Stephen Murphy a grant of $315,000 (approximately £280,000) for the project, ‘Circumambulating Objects: Paradigms of Restitution of Southeast Asian Art.’  

The project will launch in early 2023, with Professor Louise Tythacott and SOAS alumni from the Southeast Asian Art Academic Programme, Dr Udomluck Hoontrakul, Seng Sonetra and Panggah Ardiyansyah, making up the rest of the core project team.  

The collaborative work will take place in the form of critical thinking labs and archaeological, pagoda and museum visits in Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia.     

Professor Ashley Thompson, Hiram W. Woodward Chair in Southeast Asian Art and Principal Investigator said:   

“Attentive to the rapid increase in restitution claims from Southeast Asian countries over the last decade, the project is timely: the group will examine premodern Southeast Asian epistemologies underpinning object restitution – namely concepts and practices concerning  the life and death of objects writ large, including the circulation of ‘art,’ ownership, authenticity and replication, as well as conservation or measured degradation, and display or non-disclosure as the case may be.”

Dr Stephen Murphy, Pratapaditya Pal Senior Lecturer in Curating and Museology of Asian Art and Co-Investigator said:    

"Object Restitution in Southeast Asia has by and large taken place within the confines of the nation state. However, many of the issues are transnational in nature. The ‘Circumambulating Objects: Paradigms of Restitution of Southeast Asian Art" project provides us with a unique opportunity to bring together the wide-ranging expertise that has developed both in-region and internationally. It aims to create a space for dialogue, debate, and the building of collaborative frameworks in an effort to move the concepts and processes of restitution forward."

This project is made possible with support from the Getty Foundation through its Connecting Art Histories initiative.  

The Getty Foundation is a cultural and philanthropic institution dedicated to the presentation, conservation, and interpretation of the world’s artistic legacy.