Bronze Buddha finds home in Cambodia National Museum

A bronze Buddha from a Phnom Penh temple has been donated to the National Museum, after having been stolen and recovered many times.

Buddha statue finds sanctuary in National Museum
Phnom Penh Post, 05 December 2012

A small bronze statue no bigger than a child was stolen and recovered so many times from the Sambor pagoda, in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district, that the monks there decided to cover up its alluring artwork by painting it yellow.

Thieves, however, saw past the disguise and ran off with it again — at which point everyone agreed that a higher measure of security was in order.

“I and the pagoda committee and followers were concerned, so we made a unanimous decision to offer it to City Hall for keeping it in the National Museum,” Venerable Kong Pisey, the pagoda’s chief monk, said.

“In the past, the fingers of this statue were covered by gold and diamonds, but they were cut out after it was stolen.”

Full story here.