Metropolitan Museum of Art to Return Antiquities to Cambodia

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has agreed to return 13 antiquities linked to "illicit trafficking" to Cambodia, according to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.

The artifacts are associated with the late Douglas Latchford, an antiquities dealer who was indicted in 2019 for smuggling, conspiracy, and wire fraud. Latchford had donated and sold sculptures to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and other renowned institutions.

"The Metropolitan Museum of Art not only acknowledges the significance of these 13 Khmer artifacts, which were shamelessly stolen, but has also volunteered to return them to their rightful owners: the People of Cambodia," stated Erin Keegan, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations.

The statues being returned include a 10th-century sandstone statue of a goddess from Cambodia's Koh Ker archaeological site. Additionally, other statues, such as an over-life-size head of Buddha, dating as far back as the 7th century, will also be returned.

Nearly all of Cambodia's 4,000 temples have been looted

Theft of Cambodia's cultural treasures from religious sites across the country started a century ago when the country was colonized by France. The looting became a global business in the 1970s, '80s and '90s amidst genocide, civil war and political turmoil.

The 1970 UNESCO Convention requires member states to prevent the illegal import or export of cultural property. It also requires countries to take appropriate steps to recover and return cultural property at the request of the country of origin.

Latchford popped up on the radar of U.S. law enforcement in 2011 after a 500-pound sandstone warrior from Koh Ker appeared in a Sotheby's auction catalog. A team from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York went to Cambodia to investigate the provenance of the statue and investigators were able to trace its original sale back to Latchford.

The indictment against Latchford was dropped after his death.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art previously returned two statues called the Kneeling Attendants, which had been donated to the museum by Latchford. In May, the museum announced it would create a research team to examine the provenance, or acquisition history, of all its collections.