PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia has welcomed the announcement that New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art will return to Cambodia and Thailand more than a dozen ancient works of art linked to an art dealer and collector accused of running a vast antiquities trafficking network from Southeast Asia.
This latest repatriation of works of art comes as many museums in the United States and Europe reckon with collections containing objects looted from Asia, Africa and other places during centuries of colonialism or during times of unrest.
Fourteen Khmer sculptures will be returned to Cambodia and two will be returned to Thailand, the Manhattan museum announced Friday, although no specific timeline was given.
“We appreciate this first step in the right direction,” said a statement from the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. “We look forward to further returns and recognition of the truth about our lost national treasures, taken from Cambodia during the time of war and genocide.”
Cambodia suffered from war and the brutal rule of the communist Khmer Rouge in the 1970s and 1980s, creating disorder and the potential for its archaeological treasures to be looted.
The repatriation of the ancient pieces was linked to renowned art dealer Douglas Latchford, who was indicted in 2019 for allegedly orchestrating a multi-year scheme to sell looted Cambodian antiquities on the international art market. Latchford, who died the following year, had denied any involvement in smuggling.
The museum initially worked with the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan and the New York office of Homeland Security Investigations on the return of 13 sculptures tied to Latchford before deciding that three more should be repatriated.
“As evidenced by today's announcement, exhibits related to the Douglas Latchford investigation continue to reveal themselves,” HSI Acting Special Agent in Charge Erin Keegan said in a statement Friday. “The Metropolitan Museum of Art has not only recognized the significance of these thirteen Khmer artifacts, which were brazenly stolen, but has also volunteered, as part of their ongoing partnership, to return them to their rightful owners: the people of Cambodia.”
This isn't the first time the museum has repatriated art related to Latchford. In 2013 she returned two objects to Cambodia.
The Latchford family also had a shipment of ancient Cambodian jewelry in their possession that they later returned to Cambodia. In February, 77 pieces of jewelry made of gold and other precious metals – including items such as crowns, necklaces and earrings – were returned to their home countries. Other stone and bronze objects were returned in September 2021.
The pieces being returned include a bronze sculpture called The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Seated in Royal Ease, made sometime between the late 10th century and the early 11th century. Another work of art, made of stone in the seventh century and called Head of Buddha, will also be returned. These pieces are among ten pieces that remain on display in the museum's galleries while arrangements are made for their return.
“This return contributes to the reconciliation and healing of the Cambodian people who have lived through decades of civil war and suffered immensely from the tragedy of the Khmer Rouge genocide, and to greater strengthening of our relationship with the United States ”, said the Cambodian Minister of Culture. and Fine Arts, Phoeurng Sackona, in her office's statement.
The museum was already conducting research into the ownership history of its objects, focusing on how ancient art and cultural properties changed hands, as well as the provenance of works of art looted by the Nazis.
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Associated Press writer Maysoon Khan in Albany, New York, contributed to this report. Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.