“This anthology of essays by mostly Southeast Asian academics is a timely overview of the hot-button issue of repatriation and its many complications.”

The Straits Times

“Approaching historic inequality through the lens of material culture provides fascinating insight into the dynamics of visual art and power… Returning Southeast Asia’s Past: Objects, Museums and Restitution is an interesting, well-researched book which explores how museum collections reflect the colonial ideologies of the people who assembled them.”

Asian Review of Books

"Recommended. Offering critical discussion of repatriation focused on a region heretofore not thoroughly examined, this volume will be of interest to researchers in museum studies, cultural heritage, sociology and anthropology, legal and ethical issues, decolonization, and Southeast Asian studies."

Choice

“Some of the volume’s strengths lie in its broad regional coverage (Thailand, Vietnam, and particular attention to Indonesia, Burma, and Cambodia) and its detailed historical documentation using primary archival research. . . . Its high-resolution illustrations are helpful, and the volume has been edited with great care. Returning Southeast Asia’s Past makes several important points concerning Southeast Asia’s cultural heritage for scholars of the region and also for archaeologists and art historians who work globally.”
 
 

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

“This is the first book entirely devoted to object restitution to Southeast Asia. . . . The essays in this book bring to light information never before published regarding the processes, practices, and politics of acquiring, displaying, and returning Southeast Asian art. . . . As such, the book, illustrated with a selection of relevant objects, is a very readable and interesting overview of important issues along with specific cases of cultural appropriation in relation to a particular region of the world.”

Asian Perspectives

“Each chapter deals with significant and intriguing cases of Southeast Asian art and scrutinises the dynamics of changing perceptions on this moveable art and heritage from curiosities to the eyes of the imperialists to reinterpretation in the original regional context. Meanwhile, the entire volume collectively and harmoniously conveys multiple voices on restitution processes in general… Readers who would like to understand changing perceptions and diverse practices of restitution in the future should take care not to neglect this work.”

Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society

"Returning Southeast Asia's Past: Objects, Museums, and Restitution provides important case studies on the subjects of repatriation, the law of provenance, object ownership and related political issues. It also has important bibliographic sources for Southeast Asian studies, art history, history and museum studies."

SOJOURN

“As a scholar of Indonesia, I especially appreciated Wieske Sapardan’s exhilarating discussion of the mobilities of a stunning thirteenth-century Prajnaparamita stone statue of the goddess of transcendental wisdom…. Each chapter is fascinating to read and will be eminently teachable in undergraduate and graduate classes in Southeast Asian history and politics, Asian art history, and critical museum studies more broadly.”

Journal of Vietnamese Studies