Australian museum to return stolen Cambodian artefacts

[hanno]

Australia's national gallery will return three 9th and 10th Century bronze sculptures to Cambodia, after they were found to be stolen.

It follows a decade-long investigation carried out by the two countries to determine the origin of the works.

Cambodia's government welcomed the historic move as "an important step towards rectifying past injustices".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-66368076

[CEOCambodiaNews]

How statues looted from a Cambodian field wound up in the National Gallery of Australia
Foreign Correspondent/By South-East Asia correspondent Mazoe Ford and Anne Worthington
Posted 10h ago
Three statues.

The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Padmapani and attendants (pictured) were dug up in Cambodia and eventually sold to the National Gallery of Australia.(Supplied: National Gallery of Australia)

"The Falcon" set a cracking pace across a dusty field in Tboung Khmum, in the east of Cambodia, before stopping and pointing to the dirt at his feet.

"That's the place," he said, wiping the sweat from his brow in the sweltering heat.

On this spot nearly 30 years ago he dug up a rare, gilded bronze Buddhist statue believed to have once belonged to an ancient king.

He could never have imagined the long journey that dirt-encrusted statue would take, or the eye-watering price it would eventually fetch.

In 2011, it became one of three bronzes sold as a set to the National Gallery of Australia for $US1.5 million ($2.3 million). The gallery called them "perhaps its most extraordinary acquisition" that year.

But there had always been secrecy surrounding where the bronzes came from – until now.

Last week, the gallery officially gave the statues back to Cambodia after it was confirmed they came into its collection via a notorious con man.

It's the first time the National Gallery has repatriated Cambodian antiquities.

Now, the ABC's Foreign Correspondent can reveal how these looted artefacts went from a Cambodian field to a display case in one of Australia's most prestigious cultural institutions.

The program embedded with Cambodia's cultural heritage restitution unit, a team of antiquities sleuths tasked with tracing and reclaiming the country's missing treasures, including the National Gallery's bronzes.

And for the first time, one of the looters – codenamed The Falcon to protect his identity – has spoken exclusively to Foreign Correspondent, shedding light on an illegal trade that for decades has plundered the country's cultural heritage.
'It's thousands of crime sites'

Much has changed at the spot where The Falcon unearthed his ancient treasure in 1994.

Back then, it was covered by lush forest. Today, it's a stark and windless rice field baking in the sun.

But a lone tree standing in the field is enough for him to pinpoint the place he started digging three decades ago.

"I was around 35 years old when I was asked to dig," he said. "I was very poor. Our country was still at war."

He had heard there were royal treasures from an ancient kingdom buried around his village and that big money could be made if you could find and sell them.

"I spent more than six months digging almost everywhere in the village … and then I was told about this place," he said.

The statue he found was one of a set of three now known as the "Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Padmapani with attendants", which came from the Champa Kingdom that once inhabited Vietnam and parts of Cambodia.

His friend, codenamed The Lion, dug up the other two Cham bronzes in the same field.

Together they were paid about $100 in today's money for the haul, with The Falcon pocketing about $25.
Full article: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-03/ ... /102659730

[CEOCambodiaNews]

Australia Hands Back Looted Artifacts to Cambodia
AKP Phnom Penh, August 04, 2023 --

The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra has recently returned three bronze sculptures from its Asian collection to Cambodia, marking the gallery's first instance of such a return, said the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh on Thursday.

H.E. Justin Kevin Whyatt, Australian Ambassador to Cambodia had a chance to meet with the Cambodian team before they travelled to Australia for the handover ceremony, said the source, adding that the team is very passionate about Cambodia’s cultural heritage.

“Australia and Cambodia have shared a long history for over seven decades and the return of these sculptures is an example of our longstanding collaboration. It is an honour to be able to protect one’s cultural heritage which is an identity of the country,” stressed the embassy.
- AKP

[CEOCambodiaNews]

Australia’s National Gallery to return $1.5M statues bought from disgraced art dealer
By Christy Choi, CNN
Published 5:25 AM EDT, Fri August 4, 2023
CNN — Three bronze sculptures looted from Cambodia and later sold to the National Gallery of Australia for $1.5 million will be returned to the Southeast Asian kingdom, the museum announced Thursday.

The gallery purchased the artifacts in 2011 from the late art dealer Douglas Latchford, who was subsequently accused by US investigators of trafficking stolen antiquities.

“This is an historic occasion and an important step towards rectifying past injustices, reinforcing the value of cultural properties, and acknowledging the importance of preserving and protecting cultural heritage,” said Dr. Chanborey Cheunboran, Cambodia’s ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, at a repatriation ceremony in Canberra last Friday, according to the museum.

Latchford was considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on art from the Khmer Empire, which ruled between the 9th and 15th centuries.

In 2019, US authorities brought charges against the British dealer in a New York court claiming he had served as “a conduit” for stolen treasures since the 1970s. Investigators say he was part of an organized looting network that faked records for items taken or illicitly excavated from archaeological sites like Angkor Wat.

Latchford died in Thailand in 2020, aged 88, without answering to any of the charges.

Dating back to the 9th or 10th century, the artifacts returned this week depict three different Bodhisattvas, enlightened figures often portrayed in Buddhist sculpture.

Bradley Gordon, a legal advisor to the Cambodian government, told CNN via WhatsApp that a delegation from the country had engaged in “productive conversations on research” with the National Gallery of Australia. He added that “about 20” other Cambodian items in the museum’s collection are still being reviewed.

The National Gallery confirmed this via email, saying that “all works of art from the region are under review” and that “the outcome of the research process will inform the future of the Cambodian and Khmer works of art currently in (our) care.”
https://us.cnn.com/style/australia-nati ... index.html