In 1959, the Government of India donated 55 artefacts and 100 photographs to the University of Malaya Art Museum, the predecessor institution of NUS Museum. How do we read this donation beyond its obvious nature as a diplomatic gift? While archival sources hint at the donation’s links with a series of formal India-Malaya partnerships and as an expression of a transnational solidarity, the broad, inclusive range and artistic achievements of the donated objects defy geo-political logic. They do not represent any single place, race nor culture; contrarily they embody stories of informal border-crossings and cultural intermixing.

Archaeology