Welcome home: Met announces return of two Angkorian and Pre-Angkorian antiquities

The two Khmer antiquities that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has agreed to return to Cambodia. Culture ministry

The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts has announced that two Khmer antiquities held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York City will be returned to Cambodia after being seized by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

A handover ceremony for the two artefacts took place at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York on June 10.

The return follows an earlier repatriation in December 2023, when the Metropolitan Museum returned 14 Khmer antiquities to Cambodia after years of negotiations.

The two newly returned objects are a sandstone lintel depicting Rahu (Kala) dating from the pre-Angkorian period, believed to originate from the 7th or 8th century CE, and a sandstone sculpture, identified as a representation of the demon Hiranyakashipu, dating from the Angkorian period in the 10th century. The sculpture is believed to have originated from Prasat Chen in the Koh Ker archaeological complex.

According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit, evidence provided to The Met demonstrated that both objects were linked to the trafficking network of antiquities dealer Nancy Wiener.

After reviewing the evidence, the museum agreed to return the artefacts to Cambodia at the request of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has been one of Cambodia’s closest partners in investigating and securing the return of Khmer cultural property. Over the past decade, investigations by the Antiquities Trafficking Unit uncovered extensive evidence related to trafficking networks involving Wiener, as well as large-scale trafficking operations connected to the late Douglas “Dynamite Doug” Latchford and Spink & Son.

Those investigations have resulted in the repatriation of numerous Khmer artefacts to Cambodia. Wiener was subsequently convicted on charges related to the illegal trafficking of antiquities.

The culture ministry expressed its gratitude to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, particularly Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos and his investigative team, for their continued commitment to the principle that trafficking in stolen cultural property is not only a crime against the country of origin but also a violation of New York State law.

The ministry also praised The Met for accepting the evidence and agreeing to return the two artefacts. It welcomed the museum’s ongoing efforts to review additional items in its collection and determine the provenance of other Khmer antiquities in its collection.

In addition, the ministry thanked its own team of Cambodian specialists and international experts, including Bradley J. Gordon of Edenbridge Asia and Malina Antoniadis of NOSTOS Strategies, for their support in securing the return of Khmer cultural property that had been illegally removed from the country.

The ministry also expressed appreciation to Éric Bourdonneau, a historian and archaeologist with the French School of Asian Studies (EFEO) in Cambodia, for his research on the statue of the demon Hiranyakashipu from the Koh Ker region.

-Phnom Penh Post-