The United States will return to Cambodia 30 looted antiquities, including bronze and stone statues of Buddhist and Hindu deities carved more than 1,000 years ago, US officials have said.
The south-east Asian country’s archaeological sites – including Koh Ker, a capital of the ancient Khmer empire – suffered widespread looting in civil conflicts between the 1960s and 1990s.
Cambodia’s government has since sought to repatriate stolen antiquities sold on the international market.
Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said the items being returned were sold to western buyers by Douglas Latchford, a Bangkok dealer who created fake documents to conceal that the items had been looted and smuggled.
Williams said the antiquities, including a 10th-century sandstone statue depicting the Hindu god of war Skanda riding on a peacock and a sculpture of Ganesha, were voluntarily relinquished by US museums and private collectors after his office filed civil forfeiture claims. Both sculptures were looted from Koh Ker, the US attorney’s office southern district of New York said.
The antiquities repatriated to Cambodia are sandstone and bronze sculptures and artefacts, ranging in age from the bronze age to the 12th century, which were either removed illegally from Cambodia by looters, imported into the US based on false statements to United States Customs and Border Protection, or both.
“These statues and artefacts … are of extraordinary cultural value to the Cambodian people,” Williams said at a ceremony in Manhattan on Monday announcing the return of the antiquities.
Ricky J Patel, acting special agent in charge of homeland security investigations in New York, praised the sculptures for their “extraordinary beauty and craftsmanship”.
“These antiquities we return today were ripped from their country … many are sacred artefacts pried from temples and palaces to be smuggled across borders and peddled by those seeking profit, without any regard to the intangible value they have to the people of their homeland,” he added in a statement.
The antiquities will be displayed at the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s US ambassador Keo Chhea told Reuters at the ceremony.
“It’s like a returning of the souls of our culture back to our people,” Chhea added. “We’re very grateful.”
In 2014, federal prosecutors returned the Duryodhana, a looted 10th-century sandstone sculpture, to Cambodia after settling with auction house Sotheby’s, which had acquired it.
Last year, the Manhattan district attorney’s office returned 27 looted antiquities to Cambodia.
Chhea praised the cooperation between the US and Cambodia to enable the return of the antiquities, but he also said they were battling a “global problem” that continues.
He added that “we need to commit and to continue our fight” to prevent further looting and stop the plundering of precious works of art by tools used by looters, which sometimes results in pieces of sculptures being chopped off.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
