via CBS, 17 December 2023: The first of two videos from 60 Minutes looking at the trafficking of Cambodian antiquities to America and Cambodia’s decade-long mission to recover thousands of sacred artifacts looted from temples, a saga intertwined with its tumultuous history.
The theft of Cambodia’s cultural treasures — thousands of sacred stone, bronze and gold artifacts from religious sites across the country — might just be the greatest art heist in history. It began nearly a century ago when Cambodia was colonized by France, but in the 1970s, 80s and 90s — amidst genocide, civil war, and political turmoil – the looting became a global business, much of it run by a British man named Douglas Latchford. He kept some of it for himself, but much of what his gang of thieves stole, Latchford then sold to wealthy private collectors and some of the most important museums around the world. Cambodia’s government has spent the last 10 years trying to track it all down… and now they want their history and heritage brought home.
Angkor Wat, with its towering spires, is the glory of Cambodia. Nearly a thousand years old, it’s one of the biggest and most extraordinary religious temples in the world — sprawling across 400 acres. Originally built to honor the Hindu god Vishnu, it then became a Buddhist temple, and remains a place of worship today. You can wander here for weeks, lost in a labyrinth of ancient stone corridors and sacred chambers. But the scars of plunder run deep: looters have hacked off the heads of many statues… they’ve stolen bodies as well… empty pedestals mark where gods and deities once stood… on some, only the feet remain.
Source: How stolen Cambodian artifacts ended up in American museums | 60 Minutes – CBS News
