Pierre Baptiste Chief Curator, SE Asia Guimet, Paris, France

                                                  Lovely Suzanne E. Siskel, Executive VP & CEO
                                                  The Asia Foundation,  with intro to charming 
                                                   Pierre Baptiste, Chief Curator, SE Asia. 

Pierre started his talk with a great sense of humor!  He said that when the Eiffel tower was built everyone thought it was ugly but they loved the Guimet architecture.!  The beginnings of Kymer art were with a man who knew nothing about art, connoisseurship or collecting; this is not uncommon in the 19th century, even early 20th century.  Louis Delaporte was in Saigon, VN which then was the capital of Indochine!  He was appointed to make a Mekong River expedition campaign in 1866.  They were trying to reach South China. Napoleon III wanted relationship with China(mainland); he did not want to go through HK and Canton.  He certainly had foresight.   Ernest Doudart de Lagra signed agreement with Cambodia as a protectorate treaty.  Of course French protection also meant domination.  The King of Cambodia was in a difficult position between the Yuan dynasty and Thailand, which is very comprehensible, given what was happening in expansionism then.     It was thought by the French that these ruins were as important as Greek and Roman ruins, and of course, they were right.  But this view point was impolitic as the French "were bringing civilization to SE Asia", not the reverse.   The King helped because he wanted to see his civilization zenith represented in the Western world in 1873.  The sculptures were shipped as an official state mission.  The Louvre said, "NO space: which meant they did not recognize the works in their true valuation.  The pieces were kept in the Trocadero Palace for five years until the Universal Exposition. After the exposition, the pieces remained there and became "the Indochine Museum of the Trocadero".   

The Museum was first opened by Guimet in Lyon and then he moved it to Paris, to its present location, as  Museum of Religions.   Guimet collected and exhibited religious artifacts from all over the world.  He was seeking iconography.    

Etienne Aymoniet (1844-1920) found a lintel from Pheon Da early 12th c.   He travelled on Sunday afternoons, and found the sculpture on the ground and rescued it.  There was not a national museum in Cambodia, then. He bought pre-Kymer sculpture, what he perceived as exotic pieces.  Of course, these are treasures in the museum, now. 

Philip Stern became the curator. He hated insects and travel to SE Asia.  In the Marseilles Colonial exhibition, in 1922, there were important works. A student and aristocrat, Comtesse Gilberte de Coral Remuet  was responsible for bringing back art.  

The Banteay Sey pediment . c 967 was not the one that Malraux took(and was imprisoned for ) but a gift later...Andre Malraux subsequently became the first Minister of Culture of France.    

In 1997 Helen Jessup(her husband being the ambassador) arranged an exhibition that travelled from Washington DC to Osaka.   Then Cham was arranged by the Guimet in 2005;, which exhibit I believe I saw.  Oh, I will stop there...it is all very complex!  Lovely to be reminded of this part of the world and its level of civilization, about which we knew nothing when we studied the 12th century in Europe.