Cambodian team hunting looted treasures visits UK museums

via BBC News, 30 September 2022: The Victoria & Albert Museum and British Museum are opening up their collections to inspection by Cambodian officials on the origins of their collections.

Two major British museums are opening up their collections to archaeologists and officials from Cambodia, in response to allegations that valuable items are sitting illegally in the UK.

The first visit is to the Victoria & Albert Museum on Friday, followed by one to the British Museum in October.

Cambodia wants the UK to help recover antiquities it says were stolen from its temples during years of conflict.

Both museums have said they are transparent about the origin of items.

The Cambodian delegation hopes to discuss the provenance of objects in the two collections and to examine them in person.

“The challenge for us is that we have been doing our research from long distance, just looking at what is publicly available on the museums’ websites,” says Brad Gordon, the head of Cambodia’s investigations team. “For example, we are not able to see the objects from different angles.”

Source: Cambodian team hunting looted treasures visits UK museums – BBC News