The Apsara Authority handed over several Angkorian and pre-Angkorian relics to the National Museum yesterday in preparation for a three-month exhibition that will highlight jewellery from the Kingdom’s past.

National Museum Director Kong Vireak said the exhibition, which will begin next month, will primarily showcase a set of looted Angkorian jewellery recently recovered from the United Kingdom.

Among the items lent to the museum yesterday was a gold hair accessory found at Siem Reap’s Ta Prohm temple and two pre-13th-century bronze Buddha statues unearthed on Phnom Kulen.

Separately, the US Embassy in Phnom Penh yesterday announced a $350,000 award from the US Department of State’s Cultural Heritage Center to restore the 10th-century Phnom Bakheng temple at the Angkor Archaeological Park.