via Agencia EFE, 14 July 2022: Cambodia has by far been the most active country in Southeast Asia working to repatriate looted cultural heritage.
From celestial dancers to Buddhas, Cambodia is trying to recover thousands of sculptures looted from its iconic Angkor temples and other monuments, and sold to international collectors and even prestigious museums.
Cambodian authorities have reportedly recovered more than 600 works since 1996, but they still have a long way to go to salvage all their missing pieces.
In May they wrote to the British government, the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum about some 150 Khmer works that may have been stolen.
“We are currently aware of thousands of statues in museums and private collections outside of Cambodia,” said Brad Gordon, a lawyer with Edenbridge Asia who advises the Cambodian government in its recovery efforts.
“We are tracking looted Cambodian cultural properties in a number of countries such as the UK, United States, France, Germany and elsewhere. We are also researching Cambodian cultural properties in more than 100 museums from the Metropolitan Museum to the British Museum to the National Gallery of Australia,” he told EFE.
