PHNOM PENH: The National Museum of Cambodia announced on Saturday, 28 January 2023, that the fragments of an arm and hand belonging to a King Jayavarman VII statue had been reassembled following extensive technical study. Some of the fragments were first found in 1924, nearly 100 years ago.

The National Museum of Cambodia released a statement on its official Facebook page on Saturday recounting the history of the statue's restoration. Fragments of the Jayavarman VII statue were first discovered by French researcher, Henri Marchal, in 1924 and kept preserved at the Angkor Conservation facility in 1931. Georges Groslier, the founder and curator of the National Museum of Cambodia, later brought these fragments to the museum in 1934 to reassemble the statue.

It was not until 1998, however, that the conservation and restoration team of the National Museum noticed that the statue was not reassembled correctly, hence, they decided to dismantle the pieces once more and preserve the fragments according to the technical standards of restoration in late 1999. Meanwhile, the right hand piece of the King Jayavarman VII statue was also discovered in 1990.

Since the fragments of the left forearm were first found in 1924, researcher Michel Trane had hypothesized that these fragments were parts of the hands of the Jayavarman VII statue, but was not able to confirm this with the fragments kept at the National Museum.

A French research team finally confirmed this hypothesis in 2019 using 3D scanning technology that tested if the pieces fit together. The study showed that the pieces were nearly a 100% fit, confirming that the arm fragments really did belong to the Jayavarman VII statue. The National Museum then decided to once again reassemble these pieces with the full statue in 2021.

The stone restoration workshop and conservation team finally began the reassembly process in January 2023, evaluating and discussing the techniques to connect the pieces together, and further confirming the hypothesis and results of the previous study when completing the task.

"The purpose of this conservation and restoration is to enhance the prestige and invaluable memory of the Angkorian kings who sacrificed their physical and mental strength to defend our country," wrote the National Museum in its Facebook post.