Interview: Cambodia shares successful story on repatriation of stolen antiquities

Cambodia successfully reclaimed five antiques that were looted by the United States during the country's civil war, after effective diplomatic and legal work, a senior government official told Xinhua in a recent interview, in which ways other countries may reclaim stolen artifacts was shared.

The five ancient statues, which were looted from Cambodia during the time of the country's civil war in the 1970s, had been repatriated from the United States to Cambodia between June 2013 and June 2014.

Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Office of the Council of Ministers, which represented the Cambodian government to reclaim the cultural objects, said international law, close cooperation between Cambodia and the United States, and concrete evidence, had led Cambodia to successfully retrieving its looted artifacts.

Firstly, Cambodia's cultural heritage is protected by the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property in 1970, which is the first international instrument to fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural property.

"This is the foundation for Cambodia to campaign for the repatriation of those statues," he said.

Secondly, Cambodia and the United States signed a bilateral agreement for protecting Cambodia's cultural patrimony in 2003, which paved the way for the two countries to work closely with each other to retrieve the looted statues.

"The U.S. government had played a very important role in assisting Cambodia to get back those antiquities," he said, adding that the U.S. government fully assisted Cambodia in negotiations with the museums and private collectors and in legal proceedings.

He said the U.S. government paid for all legal fees during the proceedings against the New York-based auction house Sotheby's for a stolen Duryodhana statue. The legal campaign was conducted by the U.S. Attorney with the active support of the Cambodian legal team.

Thirdly and more importantly, Cambodia set up a team, which was comprised of experts of Cambodia, UNESCO, and the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient (EFEO), or French School of the Far East, to find evidence, the origins of the looted statues, and the period when the statues were taken from Cambodia in order to support the claims.

He said in these cases, Cambodia had concrete evidence such as a link between the pedestals still in place in Cambodia and the looted statues.

"We had the advantage over the museums and private collectors because we had documents and solid evidence relevant to the looted statues to prove that those cultural objects were stolen from Cambodia and we were the rightful owner," he said.

For the 1,000-year-old mummified Buddha statue, which is now in the possession of a Dutch private collector, Phay Siphan said China is also a state party of the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property in 1970, so this is the legal base for China to fight for the statue's repatriation.

"It is also essential that China seek close cooperation from the Dutch government," he said. "And, the most important thing is the concrete evidence to prove that the statue was taken from China."

Anne Lemaistre, Head of Office at UNESCO Cambodia, also unveiled UNESCO's help for Cambodia in reclaiming a stolen Duryodhana statue from Sotheby's in a lengthy legal fight.

She recalled that in March 2011, Sotheby's placed the stolen statue on the cover of its auction catalogue for Asia Week, and the dispute over the statue started from then when the Cambodian government, alerted about the statue by UNESCO, asked Sotheby's to remove it from the auction list.

"However, in order to have the sculpture repatriated, remarkable evidence would be required to demonstrate that the piece had been illegally removed (from Cambodia)," she said in recent talks.

According to Lemaistre, federal investigators from the U.S. District Attorney's Office in New York conducted their own investigations and found that the Duryodhana statue was in fact robbed from Cambodia in 1972.

"Armed with clear proof of illegal looting, the Cambodian government and UNESCO had to carefully decide their next course of action, as buying the piece back could set a precedent for all future recovery of looted antiquities," she said.

She said the legal advisor to UNESCO suggested that the U.S. Embassy be approached for their assistance. Given that the U.S. has a strict moral code concerning looted artifacts and their repatriation, upon receiving an official request from the Cambodian government, the U.S. authorities seized the statue and issued a legal case against Sotheby's on behalf of Cambodia.

"One and half years of legal battles between the U.S. authorities and Sotheby's finally led to a settlement in December 2013 and the Duryodhana was officially returned to Cambodia," she said.

"The consistent efforts of the Cambodian government, the determination of the U.S. authorities and work of all the collaborators collectively, led to a successful outcome," Lemaistre said. Endi