Academic Discovers that SOAS May Possess Another Looted Thai Artefact

Caren Holmes, MA Postcolonial Studies

A second Thai antiquity lacking documentation of its providential and transactional history has been identified in the SOAS collections, raising concerns that the university potentially has other looted items in its possession. The item in question is a 2000-year-old ceramic vessel from Ban Chiang, Thailand, one of the most historically looted regions in the country.  The vessel, according to documents provided by SOAS in a Freedom of Information request (FOI), was allegedly purchased in either Bangkok or Singapore during the early 1970s at the height of illegal excavation in Ban Chiang. A 1961 Thai law requires that all antiquities exported from the state must have a license from the country’s Fine Arts Department. SOAS does not appear to have the documentation to prove the legal exportation of the item from Thailand. When asked about how the vessel was allowed to pass through the SOAS Due Diligence Policy of Philanthropic Gifts, the university explained in an FOI that such procedures were not followed as they do not apply for donations worth less than £1000.

While she has only submitted FOI requests for two items, both have raised red flags about the school’s compliance with due diligence procedures,

Dr Angela Chiu, who has a PhD in Thai Art History, has expressed growing concern about the number of potentially looted items within the SOAS collection. While she has only submitted FOI requests for two items, both have raised red flags about the school’s compliance with due diligence procedures, the decolonizing SOAS vision, as well as international standards of art trading designed to prevent the continued circulation of looted artefacts. Chiu has published her ongoing investigations into these items on her blog SOASWatch.org

In 2009, University College London (UCL) staff discovered 16 Ban Chiang antiquities within their university’s collection. UCL subsequently gave all 16 items back to the Thai Department of Fine Arts, setting a precedent of identifying and returning potentially looted items within university possession. Chiu hopes that SOAS will follow suit, auditing their own collection and returning potentially looted items to their countries of origin.

A SOAS spokesperson says that the university is reviewing procedures for the management and stewardship of the SOAS collection and that an audit of the collection is already underway, explaining that “the issue of the appropriateness of continuing to hold items – including this specific Ban Chiang pot – will be considered as part of that audit.”  

Photo Credits: soaswatch.org