WASHINGTON – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), in conjunction with the U.S. Department of State and Cambodia Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, returned two Khmer statues to Cambodia during a repatriation ceremony at the National Museum of Cambodia April 3.
The first item is an 11th Century sandstone Khmer statue torso of the Khleang style wearing a Khmer sampot, a traditional garment of Cambodia. The statue was part of an administrative seizure in 2017, when HSI San Francisco received information regarding the sale at an auction house in California. The auction house owner said the piece was imported in 1992 with a certificate of authenticity issued in Bangkok, Thailand, which identified the item as “Body of Khmer in Angkor Wat.” The antiquity expert determined the statue had a fair market value of $75,000.
The second item, dated between the early 10th to late 10th century, is a large gray sandstone Khmer statue torso of an unidentified deity. The item was a part of a criminal seizure in September 2005, when the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protections and HSI Los Angeles confiscated it from a partial shipment of goods that arrived in the United States from Thailand. Experts value this statue at about $120,000.
“On every return of Khmer artifacts from abroad, it is a testament to the fact that a full cooperative and peaceful partnership exists, the result of efforts by the Royal Government of Cambodia and United States government, to make possible the return of the statues that have left the country,” said Cambodian Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Dr. Phoeurng Sackona.
