Cambodia Says the Met Museum Has Dozens of Its Looted Antiquities

That man, whom Cambodian officials refer to only as “Lion,” has spent two years escorting officials to dozens of remote sites where, Cambodians say, he and his gang systematically uprooted and carted away for sale massive stone statuary, intricate bronze sculptures and ceramic burial jars filled with royal gold and jewels. Most of those items, the former looter said, were sold through brokers in Thailand.

Image Phoeurng Sackona, the Cambodian culture minister, said the account of a reformed looter was critical to compiling evidence on stolen items. Credit... Sovannara/Xinhua, via Alamy Live News

Cambodia’s culture minister, Phoeurng Sackona, said the former looter’s information was critical to identifying the 45 Met items that officials have focused on. They have also inspected the dates of the museum’s acquisitions and physical evidence like chiseled stands and broken remnants found at the original sites. Of the 45 artifacts, she said, “Lion” recognized 33 as items he removed himself and another 11 as matching the appearance of statues stolen by others.

The artifacts were acquired by the Met between the years 1977 and 2003, according to the research by Cambodian officials.

“It surprises me and disappoints me that there are so many statues of ours in the Met,” the culture minister said, adding: “We want to see the truth come out, we want to see all the facts come out about this. We want them all returned.”

In addition to the 45 items listed on the spreadsheet, Cambodian officials said they had questions about roughly 150 other artifacts in the Met’s collections that left Cambodia between 1970 and 2000, three decades during which the nation was torn apart by war, genocide and political upheaval.

In July, the U.S. attorney embraced the credibility of “Lion” when prosecutors cited him in court papers connected to the return of a Khmer statue, “Skanda on a Peacock,” which he says he looted. An unidentified private owner voluntarily handed over that artifact, according to a Justice Department news release that identified “Lion” as Looter 1.