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The Prakhon Chai Hoard Debunked: Unravelling Six Decades of Myth, Misdirection, and Misidentification (2024)
Journal Article
Hanwong, T., Hanwong, L., & Murphy, S. (2024). The Prakhon Chai Hoard Debunked: Unravelling Six Decades of Myth, Misdirection, and Misidentification. International Journal of Cultural Property, 31(2), 177-201. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0940739124000262

The so-called “Prakhon Chai Hoard” is one of Southeast Asia’s most infamous cases of looting. The story begins in 1964 when a cache of Buddhist bronzes from Northeast Thailand appeared on the international art market via the auction house Spink & Son... Read More about The Prakhon Chai Hoard Debunked: Unravelling Six Decades of Myth, Misdirection, and Misidentification.

Restitution and repatriation as an opportunity, not a loss: some reflections on recent Southeast Asian cases (2024)
Journal Article
Murphy, S. (2024). Restitution and repatriation as an opportunity, not a loss: some reflections on recent Southeast Asian cases. Antiquity, 98(401), 1395-1495. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.129

Calls for the restitution and repatriation of cultural objects continue to escalate. High-profile cases such as the Parthenon Frieze and the Benin Bronzes dominate international news cycles and provoke fierce debate; however, less attention has been... Read More about Restitution and repatriation as an opportunity, not a loss: some reflections on recent Southeast Asian cases.

Monastery and Museum in Mustang and Ladakh (2024)
Book Chapter
Luczanits, C., & Tythacott, L. (2024). Monastery and Museum in Mustang and Ladakh. In C. Luczanits, & L. Tythacott (Eds.), Tibetan Monastery Collections and Museums: Traditional Practices and Contemporary Issues (24-85). Vajra Books

Expecting the Unexpected: New Archaeological Finds at the Shwedagon Pagoda [မျှော်မှန်းမထားသည်များအတွက်ကြိုတင်ပြင်ဆင်ထားပါ – ရွှေတိဂုံစေတီတော်မှ အသစ်တွေ့ရှေးဟောင်းသုတေသနအထောက်အထားများ] (2023)
Journal Article
Saw, T. L. (2023). Expecting the Unexpected: New Archaeological Finds at the Shwedagon Pagoda [မျှော်မှန်းမထားသည်များအတွက်ကြိုတင်ပြင်ဆင်ထားပါ – ရွှေတိဂုံစေတီတော်မှ အသစ်တွေ့ရှေးဟောင်းသုတေသနအထောက်အထားများ]. Pratu (London), 2(Report 1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00039642

The Shwedagon Pagoda situated on Singuttara Hill in the centre of Yangon, is traditionally believed to have existed during the lifetime of the Buddha. Some archaeological remnants of earlier periods have occasionally been found during renovation and... Read More about Expecting the Unexpected: New Archaeological Finds at the Shwedagon Pagoda [မျှော်မှန်းမထားသည်များအတွက်ကြိုတင်ပြင်ဆင်ထားပါ – ရွှေတိဂုံစေတီတော်မှ အသစ်တွေ့ရှေးဟောင်းသုတေသနအထောက်အထားများ].

Pemulangan Benda Cagar Budaya dan Identitas Nasional pada Era Pascakolonial di Indonesia (2023)
Journal Article
Sapardan, W. (2023). Pemulangan Benda Cagar Budaya dan Identitas Nasional pada Era Pascakolonial di Indonesia. Pratu (London), 2(Article 2), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00039539

Dalam konteks pascakolonial, pemulangan benda cagar budaya seringkali dikaitkan dengan penguatan identitas budaya dan nasional dari masyarakat bekas wilayah jajahan. Dengan fokus utama pada kehidupan sebuah objek yaitu arca Prajñāpāramitā, makalah in... Read More about Pemulangan Benda Cagar Budaya dan Identitas Nasional pada Era Pascakolonial di Indonesia.

Meritorious Curating and the Renewal of Pagoda Museums in Myanmar (2020)
Thesis
Tan, H. Meritorious Curating and the Renewal of Pagoda Museums in Myanmar. (Thesis). SOAS University of London

Gifts have been accumulated, stored and displayed at sacred sites in Myanmar for millennia as they have elsewhere within the Buddhist world. This thesis is the first attempt to analyse the phenomenon known as the ‘pagoda museum’ that existed since at... Read More about Meritorious Curating and the Renewal of Pagoda Museums in Myanmar.

Tourism and Collecting in Kyoto: The Miyako Hotel as an Agent in the Creation of the Hon. Henry Marsham Collection of Japanese Art, Maidstone Museum, Kent (2018)
Journal Article
Fukunaga, A. (2018). Tourism and Collecting in Kyoto: The Miyako Hotel as an Agent in the Creation of the Hon. Henry Marsham Collection of Japanese Art, Maidstone Museum, Kent. Journal for Art Market Studies, 2(3), https://doi.org/10.23690/jams.v2i3.66

The Hon. Henry Marsham (1845-1908) was a British businessman who collected Japanese works of art in Kyoto during the 1900s. His Kyoto ware collection at Maidstone Museum, Kent, is superior in both quantity and quality to other collections in Japan an... Read More about Tourism and Collecting in Kyoto: The Miyako Hotel as an Agent in the Creation of the Hon. Henry Marsham Collection of Japanese Art, Maidstone Museum, Kent.

The Inbetweenness of Things: Materializing Mediation and Movement between Worlds (2017)
Book
Basu, P. (Ed.). (2017). The Inbetweenness of Things: Materializing Mediation and Movement between Worlds. Bloomsbury. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474264792

We habitually categorize the world in binary logics of ‘animate’ and ‘inanimate’, ‘natural’ and ‘supernatural’, ‘self’ and ‘other’, ‘authentic’ and ‘inauthentic’. The Inbetweenness of Things rejects such Western classificatory traditions – which tend... Read More about The Inbetweenness of Things: Materializing Mediation and Movement between Worlds.

Cultural Landscapes of Later Myanmar (2016)
Book Chapter
Khine Pyae Sone, & Tan, H. (2016). Cultural Landscapes of Later Myanmar. In S. Murphy (Ed.), Cities and Kings. Ancient Treasures from Myanmar (58-73). Asian Civilisations Museum

Catalogue published in conjunction with the exhibition Cities and Kings. Ancient Treasures from Myanmar. Organised by the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore in collaboration with the Department of Archaeology and National Museum, Ministry of Cultu... Read More about Cultural Landscapes of Later Myanmar.

Picturing music in Islamic art (2014)
Book Chapter
Contadini, A. (2014). Picturing music in Islamic art. In R. Ward (Ed.), Court and Craft: A Masterpiece from Northern Iraq (46-51). The Courtauld Gallery with Paul Holberton Publishing

The Many Streams of Buddhist Art in Thailand (2012)
Book Chapter
Tan, H. (2012). The Many Streams of Buddhist Art in Thailand. In H. Tan (Ed.), Enlightened Ways. The Many Streams of Buddhist Art in Thailand (8-17). Asian Civilisations Museum

Museum-Community Partnerships: The Role of ASEAN Museums in the 21st Century (2010)
Book
Tan, H. (Ed.). (2010). Museum-Community Partnerships: The Role of ASEAN Museums in the 21st Century. Asian Civilisations Museum

This volume addresses how Southeast Asian museums strategize and manage community-museum partnerships in an increasingly globalized world. It comprises case studies from both public and private museums in the ASEAN region. The essays are based on pap... Read More about Museum-Community Partnerships: The Role of ASEAN Museums in the 21st Century.

Thinking about Early Collecting (2009)
Book Chapter
Tan, H. (2009). Thinking about Early Collecting. In G. P. Krishnan (Ed.), Hunters and Collectors. The Origins of the Southeast Asian Collection. Asian Civilisations Museum

Abruzzese Cultural Institutions : Digitization Readiness and Project Viability (2009)
Report
Kesse, E. Abruzzese Cultural Institutions : Digitization Readiness and Project Viability

Planning paper addressing a potential way forward, digitising archival, library and museum materials for the benefit of the people of Abruzzo, Italy, following the L'Aquilla earthquake of 2009. The paper was commissioned by the United States Departm... Read More about Abruzzese Cultural Institutions : Digitization Readiness and Project Viability.