Now for an interesting story of how Cambodian treasure ended up forming

Now for an interesting story of how Cambodian treasure ended up forming a serious collection of Khmer artifacts in the current display and archives of the Tokyo National Museum (TNM) in Japan. In 1941, the EFEO chief in Hanoi, George Coedes, during the time the city was under Japanese control during the 2nd World War, agreed to an exchange project whereby 69 Angkorian artifacts were sent to the TNM, in exchange for 31 Japanese items including swords, lacquer ware and sculptures. Whilst the Japanese items never reached Cambodia (they remained in Vietnam), the Khmer objects - which included 31 sculptures from the 9th-13th century, 13 metalwork objects from the 12th-14th century and 25 ceramics from the 9th-17th century - are still in Tokyo, having eventually arrived at the beginning of 1944. Not quite sure how Cambodia benefitted from this so-called exchange. Let’s also remember that a man who dedicated much of his life to Cambodia, the former museum curator George Groslier, died at the hands of the Japanese military police in Phnom Penh in 1945. Not exactly a positive period for Khmer-Japan relations. The TNM is Japan’s oldest and largest museum and one of the biggest art museums in the world. Its Khmer collection is housed in the Toyokan Asian Gallery and I’ve included as many of the exhibits here as I can, though their online gallery is not nearly as helpful as many other museums.