Prague, Dec 1 (CTK) – Czech designer Viktorie Beldova has made a set of crown jewels for the King of Cambodia, Norodom Sihamoni, who studied in Prague in the past and still speaks excellent Czech, and she has left for Cambodia to seek artistic inspiration and possibly meet the king, Veronika Parizkova has told CTK.
Parizkova represents the Kvalitar gallery in Prague, which will put the jewels on display as of December 13.
Beldova has not succeeded in meeting Norodom Sihamoni for now, but she still expects to have a chance to hand his new crown jewels to him, Parizkova said.
In creating the crown, Beldova was inspired by the 12th-century Angkor Wat temple hidden in the Cambodian jungle. Using mainly gold and silver, she decorated the crown with motifs of lotus or the Bodhi sacred tree.
The Belda family, from which the young designer comes, have for many decades cared for the Czech St Wenceslas crown, a priceless coronation jewel from the 14th century.
Viktorie’s father and grandfather created a replica of the crown that was used to coronate kings of Bohemia.
“The young designer has followed up her family tradition. She only needed to find a sovereign who does not possess any crown… Cambodia’s original crown jewels got lost as a result of previous wars in the country,” Parizkova said.
Norodom Sihamoni became Cambodian king 12 years ago. At the age of nine, he left for Prague to study ballet at the conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts. He became fond of the Czech capital, where he stayed until 1975.
On return to Cambodia, he was arrested by the Red Khmers ultra-left rebels and spent three years in home arrest together with other members of the royal family.
He managed to escape to China in 1979. Later he stayed in North Korea and in the early 1980s he settled down as a ballet master in France for two decades.
