via Rhode Island Current, 24 July 2023: Controversy surrounding Brown University’s new performing arts center, named after the Lindemann family, who were implicated in the theft of Cambodian antiquities, leading to outrage and demands for the return of the artifacts from the Cambodian community.
In May 2022, Brown University named the performing arts center after what a news release called a “generous gift” for its construction from Frayda B. Lindemann, a member of its board of Trustees, (Brown did not disclose the amount). A musician herself, Lindemann also serves on the Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. In 1994, she established the Lindemann Charitable Foundation — alongside her late husband, George Lindemann — to support arts and access to them across the country.
Three months after Brown made its naming decision, The Washington Post reported in August 2022 that the Lindemann family was widely known as connoisseurs and collectors of ancient medieval and Khmer artifacts.
Questions about how the family obtained these artifacts had lingered after a photo of the San Francisco home of author and lawyer Sloan Lindemann Barnett, the daughter of Frayda and George, appeared in Architectural Digest in January 2021. The photo appeared to have been altered to remove several Khmer artifacts, according to The Washington Post’s report.
