Once underway, this major project was widely acclaimed by the national and international press, drawing new attention to the National Museum and the importance of its collections. The Cambodia Daily noted aptly, in 2005: “In the National Museum’s basement, order emerges from the chaos. ’A full-page article, entitled, ‘National Museum Inventory Project: Phnom Penh’ appeared in the London-based art newspaper Asian Artin October 2005, with Deputy Director Hab Touch commenting that he believed the project represented a major step forward for the institution, which until then had an incomplete knowledge of what was contained in its collection, and of what was missing. The International Herald Tribune titled its story, ‘A Belated Rescue of Cambodia’s Past.’
The National Museum of Cambodia is located in Phnom Penh and features a world-renown collection of Khmer artifacts from the 9th – 15th C. AD. Among these collections are approximately 6,800 Bronze objects, with over 600 on permanent display.
The EFEO started renewing contacts with the National Museum of Cambodia in 1996 (Phnom Penh) with the establishment of a workshop for conservation and restoration of stone sculpture in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Members from the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and staff of the National Museum of Cambodia, together with the Center for Khmer Studies joined in celebrating