PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The return to Cambodia this week of 14 sculptures looted from the country during a time of war and turmoil is like welcoming the spirits of ancestors home, Cambodia’s culture minister said Thursday.
Items repatriated from New York The Metropolitan Museum of Art The work arrived on Wednesday and was unveiled to journalists and VIPs at the National Museum in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, on Thursday.
The statues were “created between the 9th and 14th centuries during the Angkor period and reflect the Hindu and Buddhist religious systems that were dominant at the time,” the museum said in a statement this week.
A statement from Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said the “historic return of a national treasure” came after years of negotiations between Cambodia’s art restitution team, US federal prosecutors in New York, investigators from the US Department of Homeland Security and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Cambodia’s Culture Minister Poon Sakona said the return of the relics is very important to Cambodians as a reminder of their ancestral heritage in good and bad times.
“The artwork remained overseas for a long time but has returned to Cambodia today. This is like a blessing to our people for the peace and stability of our country,” she said.
For Cambodians, the returned artworks carry the spirits of their ancestors, she said. Bringing home the spirits of their ancestors also means bringing back history, praise and knowledge, Puang Sakona said.
She said, without elaborating, that Cambodia hopes to soon receive 50 more artifacts from the U.S. Cambodia claims other items illegally taken from the country are still in the hands of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, other museums and private collectors.
“These returns contribute to reconciliation and healing for the Cambodian people, who endured decades of civil war and suffered greatly under the tragedy of the Khmer Rouge regime,” Puang Sakona said. “They also demonstrate the truly positive partnership we have built with the United States.”
For the art community, these returns mark a reckoning over art and archaeological treasures taken from their homelands in recent years, including ancient Asian artefacts but also works lost or stolen during turmoil elsewhere, including Syria, Iraq and Nazi-occupied Europe.
The works returned to Cambodia from the Metropolitan Museum of Art were looted during Cambodia’s long period of civil war and instability, when the country was ruled by a brutal communist regime. Khmer Rouge Regime In the 1970s.
The works were bought and trafficked by prominent art dealer Douglas Ratchford, who was indicted in 2019 for orchestrating a years-long scheme to sell looted Cambodian antiquities on the international art market. Ratchford, who died the following year, denied any involvement in the smuggling.
Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture highlighted two of the returned pieces that will be reunited with others it already owns and restored.
The return also includes an “exceptional” 10th-century stone carving of the goddess Uma from the ancient royal capital of Kor Kale, he said, adding that the statue’s feet have already been retrieved from its original site.
“Finally the horse is reunited and can be realized in all its splendor as one complete statue,” it reads.
“Furthermore, a key artefact returned is the 10th century bronze head of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, which the ministry very much hopes will eventually be reunited with its body currently on display at the National Museum of Cambodia,” it said.
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