An broken statue ofJayavarman VII, discovered by Henri Marchal in 1924 and storedat the Angkor Preserve in 1931 were later brought by Georges Groslier to the National Museum and reassembled in late 1934.
It was not until 1998 that the conservation and restoration team of the National Museum observed that the statue reconnection was not correct, so it was decided to dismantle and preserve the separate pieces according to technical standards until the end of 1999.
Fragments of the right hand of Jayavarman VII were later discovered in 1990, after the fragments from 1924, and both of these pieces were examined by Cambodian researcher Dr. Michel Trane. Both were thought to be the hands of Jayavarman VII from the same statue, but he did not have the opportunity to connect them the National Museum.
This hypothesis was confirmed in 2019 by a French research team using 3D scanning technology to test the connection. The connection by this technology shows that the pieces of both hands really belong to the same Jayavarman VII statue, because the broken joints overlap almost 100%.
Following the publication of the results of the 3D connection test, the management of the National Museum decided to take the two pieces to be kept in the museum in 2021 to try to connect them.
By January 2023, the team of Workshops and Stone Conservation and the French School of the Far East (EFEO) tried to connect the two hands to confirm the hypotheses of the past and to observe, evaluate and discuss the techniques.
The purpose of this preservation and restoration is to enhance the prestige and invaluable memory of the Angkorian kings who sacrificed their physical and mental strength to defend our country.