Wednesday 3 March 2010

US to return huge shipment of looted Khmer antiquities


It seems to me that there is something a bit tongue in cheek in the article in the Phnom Penh Post ('Cambodia's Journal of Record') entitled "
US vows to return shipment of looted Khmer antiquities ". According to this the US government plans to return to Cambodia later this year a “very large” shipment of cultural artefacts plundered from temples in the kingdom, which "had found their way into the US".
The decision was announced yesterday by John Morton, the assistant secretary of homeland security for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The logistic problems of moving these "portable antiquities" back to the country of origin were signficant, some of them are very heavy. Morton told reporters after a meeting with Cambodian officials in Siem Reap Tuesday
"In 2007, we returned small items [...] For this next repatriation, the items are very large and weigh several thousand pounds. We have to make special arrangements for them to be shipped to Cambodia.”
Morton said the artefacts were large pieces removed from a single temple. US officials have also promised to help Cambodia with skills training and hope to open a permanent office in Cambodia to work on antiquities issues.

Cambodian artefacts, looted from ancient burial sites or wrenched from important monuments and temples throughout the country, are often highly sought after on the illicit international art market.
“This is international business, and unfortunately, there is a black market in cultural artefacts,” said Morton [...]. “It can be very difficult to investigate these cases because the items have been stolen many, many years ago”. The US has pledged to work with Cambodian authorities to stem the flow of the illegal art trade. An ongoing memorandum of understanding between US authorities and the Ministry of Culture bans the importation of Cambodian artefacts dating back to the Iron Age into America.

The MOU first entered effect on September 19, 2003, applying to stone, metal and ceramic archaeological artifacts of Khmer date (sixth to sixteenth century AD). An extension took effect on September 19, 2008 and will last for five years. The MOU now includes artefacts of bronze and iron age date dating back to 1500 BC. The designated list of protected categories of artifacts was published in the Federal Register (Vol. 73, no. 183, September 19, 54309-13). The MOU prohibits the import into the US of any designated Cambodian artifact unless accompanied by a Cambodian export permit or verifiable documentation that it left Cambodia prior to the effective date of the restriction.
Needless to say, as is usual, the article fails to make any mention of the name of the intended recipient of the items that "found their way" to the USA. Is this in some way classified information? Which dealers in the USA were willing to trade in (apparently) looted Cambodian artefacts, despite the existence of the MOU?

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