JavaScript is off. Please enable to view full site.

Looted Cambodian sculptures returning home from US

Looted Cambodian sculptures returning home from US

Tuesday, June 11, 2013, 19:53 GMT+7

Two 10th century statues that Cambodia says were looted from a jungle temple several decades ago returned home on Tuesday from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, in what the kingdom described as a "historic" moment.

The Met announced in May that the Khmer sculptures, known as the "Kneeling Attendants", would be sent back after 20 years on display in its Asian Wing.

Seven Buddhist monks chanted blessings for the life-size statues during a religious ceremony attended by officials from the government and the Met at the airport.

"The return of the statues is a historic event for us," Hab Touch, director general at the Ministry of Culture, told AFP.

He voiced hope that more looted Cambodian sculptures would be returned from foreign countries.

The two statues were stolen from the Koh Ker temple site, 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat complex, in the early 1970s, he added. At the time the country was in the midst of a brutal civil war and looting was rampant.

They were donated piece by piece to the Metropolitan Museum in the late 1980s and 1990s and were considered legal. However, the Met said last month that it had come into possession of new documentary research that was not available when the objects were acquired.

The sculptures will be put on display at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh during the 37th meeting of UNESCO's world heritage committee which starts on Sunday, government spokesman Ek Tha told AFP.

After that they are likely to be kept either at the National Museum in the capital or a museum in the northwestern city of Siem Reap, close to Angkor Wat.

Another ancient Cambodian statue known as the Duryodhana is at the centre of a legal dispute in New York.

Cambodia claims the sandstone artwork of a warrior was also looted from Koh Ker.

It has the support of US authorities, who last year blocked auction house Sotheby's from selling the item, worth an estimated $2-3 million.

AFP

More

Read more

;

Photos

VIDEOS

‘Taste of Australia’ gala dinner held in Ho Chi Minh City after 2-year hiatus

Taste of Australia Gala Reception has returned to the Park Hyatt Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City's District 1 after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Vietnamese woman gives unconditional love to hundreds of adopted children

Despite her own immense hardship, she has taken in and cared for hundreds of orphans over the past three decades.

Vietnam’s Mekong Delta celebrates spring with ‘hat boi’ performances

The art form is so popular that it attracts people from all ages in the Mekong Delta

Vietnamese youngster travels back in time with clay miniatures

Each work is a scene caught by Dung and kept in his memories through his journeys across Vietnam

Latest news