THAILAND TO HELP RESTORE KING RAMA V’S GIFTS TO NICHOLAS II – THAI PM

Kunstkamera houses the following artifacts: Lao-style sabre, Siamese-style sabre, Malay kris with a blade of meteoric iron and the official portraits of King Chulalongkorn and Queen Savang Vattana. Source: Gleb Fedorov

Russia Beyond the Headlines – May 2016

Thailand will help restore gifts that were given to Nicholas II by King Rama V, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said on May 18.

“I offered to send Thai craftsmen to Russia to restore the gifts that King Rama V gave to Tsar Nicholas II 119 years ago,” Prayuth told reporters after meeting his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev. “By mutual agreement, we decided to show these gifts in an open exhibition in Thailand and in Russia.”

The Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Kunstkamera) houses these gifts: A Lao-style sabre, a Siamese-style sabre, a Malay kris with a blade of meteoric iron and official portraits of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) and Queen Savang Vattana.

An article published by RBTH in 2015 on the need to urgently restore the gifts brought the matter to the attention of the Thai authorities.

A Kuntskamera official told RBTH that the Thai Prime Minister’s gesture is greatly appreciated.