A remarkable group of seven bronze figures was unearthed in Kampong Cham province, Cambodia, in 2006. These sixth- and seventh-century Buddhist sculptures, two of which were Chinese, ultimately were acquired by the National Museum of Cambodia. There they became one of the first projects of the institution’s Metal Conservation Laboratory, created with the assistance of the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Gods of Angkor celebrates not only the collaborative efforts of the Cambodian and U.S. museums to restore and interpret these important images, but also the accomplishments of Khmer bronze casters from the fourth century BCE to the fourteenth century CE. The authors decipher the makeup and meaning of bronze figural images, ritual vessels, and other objects, placing them in the context of Southeast Asian life and worship from prehistoric times through the pre-Angkorian and Angkorian eras. Together, the bronzes reveal vivid details of the significance of this important medium within Khmer culture and of the artistic and religious interactions of the Khmer with their neighbors.

Gods of Angkor: Bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Arthur M. Sackler and Freer Gallery of Art

This innovative book narrates the history of a single object―a tea-leaf storage jar created in southern China during the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries―and describes how its role changed after it was imported to Japan and passed from owner to owner there. In Japan, where the jar was in constant use for more than seven hundred years, it was transformed from a humble vessel into a celebrated object used in chanoyu (often translated in English as tea ceremony), renowned for its aesthetic and functional qualities, and awarded the name Chigusa. Few extant tea utensils possess the quantity and quality of the accessories associated with Chigusa, material that enables modern scholars and tea aficionados to trace the jar’s evolving history of ownership and appreciation. Tea diaries indicate that the lavish accessories―the silk net bag, cover, and cords―that still accompany the jar were prepared in the early sixteenth century by its first recorded owner.

Chigusa and the Art of Tea

Cort, Louise Allison

Watsky, Andrew M.

Religion & Spirituality

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Arthur M. Sackler and Freer Gallery of Art publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Arthur M. Sackler and Freer Gallery of Art