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| István Zelnik |
The 11-centimetre bowl was a gift of Jayavarman VII to the temple of Banteay Chhmar in 1199, said István Zelnik. The piece is special as few objects of precious metal from the Angkor period still bear an inscription, he added.
Zelnik, who acquired the piece, entirely tarnished, 20 years earlier at an antiques market, put its present value in the tens of millions of forints.
Before the piece was donated, it was thoroughly researched and the results published in four languages. The bowl was on display in the Zelnik István Southeast Asian Gold Museum until the beginning of December.
Zelnik said the museum?s collection is rich in Khmer culture and that 10-12 stone and cast bronze pieces of jewellery would be donated to the Cambodian National Museum after they are researched. The country?s museum has four such pieces of jewellery, while the Zelnik István Southeast Asian Gold Museum has about 30, he added.
Zelnik said he had earlier been asked by the government of Cambodia to purchase a stone statue of extraordinary cultural value at a Sotheby?s auction. The request was withdrawn, however, after it was discovered that the statue had been stolen from the Prasat Thom temple in Koh Ker in the 1960s or 70s, he added.
The collector noted that his Hungarian Southeast Asian Research Institute had recently presented a summary of three years of excavation work at Koh Ker, the capital of the Khmer empire for a short time in the 10th century. Zelnik said it was remarkable that the Hungarian project was the first to publish on the 63 stone tablets inscribed with Sanskrit and Old Khmer that were found at the site.
Zelnik said excavations by Hungarian archaeologists at the site would continue under an agreement with the deputy prime minister of Cambodia. Plans to establish a joint ?jungle museum? have also come up, he added.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
