The statue of King Sisowath was commissioned in 1908 to commemorate the reign of King Sisowath and the retrocession of the old provinces of Battambang to Cambodia in the 1907 Franco-Siamese Treaty. The commission was awarded to a French sculptor, Theodore Riviere, who did almost all of the sculpture in France. The Protectorate paid for its transportation to Phnom Penh and it was installed at the base of Wat Phnom in 1909.