Existing comment:
From Icon to Artwork
Broken buddhas like these have no religious use in Buddhist communities. In museums, however, fragments are considered art, appreciated for their beauty and historical importance.
How do Buddha images break? Some disintegrate naturally: sculptures of the body are structurally weakest at the wrists and neck. Others are intentionally defaced or damaged. And art thieves sometimes sever the heads for easy transport to distant markets.
Frustratingly, there are no chisel marks on these heads that indicate how -- or even when -- they were separated from their bodies. |