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NEW YORK — The United States handed back more than a dozen valuable antiquities to Cambodia, a prosecutor said, after they were plundered and illegally trafficked, ending up in a prestigious New York museum.They were originally plundered by prolific antiquities trafficker Douglas Latchford who in 2019 was charged with operating a major network that stole treasures from
Prosecutors said 13 Khmer antiquities were being returned, but the Met Museum, where they were displayed, said separately 14 sculptures would be returned to Cambodia, and two to Thailand.
Looters stole thousands of priceless artifacts from religious sites across Cambodia. An American lawyer is working with the country to bring them home.
The well-known American museum will return several ancient statues to Cambodia (and two to Thailand) after federal prosecutors, aided by former Cambodian looters, discovered that the artifacts had been stolen from ancient temples. For Cambodians, sculptures are not just works of art but hold the soul of their ancestors.
The works to be returned were stolen at the end of the 20th century, during the wars in Cambodia in the 1970s.