On July 16th, 2024, Ambassador Suriya Chindawongse, Consul-General Katanawadee Kalayanamit, Deputy Consul-General Natnapang Damrongsoontornchai and officials from the Royal Thai Consulate-General, Chicago, met with Mr. James Rondeau, President of the Arts Institute of Chicago (AIC), along with AIC’s Board Directors, researchers and curators, to follow up the repatriation of “the Fragment of a Pilaster with Krishna lifting Mount Govardhana” to Thailand. Recently, Mr. Nicolas Revire, AIC's researcher, has found that the Pilaster originated from the Phanom Rung temple in Burirum Province, Thailand.

 

In this regard, Ambassador Suriya, Consul-General, and the delegation visited the storage room where the Pilaster was being kept in preparation for its return.

 

The Royal Thai Consulate-General, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has coordinated with the Fine Arts Department of Thailand regarding this matter. The Fine Arts Department and other related agencies are now considering the draft Agreement to repatriate the Pilaster before sending the draft agreement to the Cabinet for its approval. After that, the Pilaster will be repatriated to Thailand in October 2024.