Sotheby's Duryodhana On Way Home

Virtual reconstruction of part of the group by French School of
Asian Studies (EFEO) (from "Chasing Aphrodite" blog)

The safe return of the Sotheby's Praset Chen Duryodhana is well on the way to completion. This follows the lengthy court standoff discussed earlier on this blog that eventually ended in a settlement. At a ceremony in New York on Wednesday it is reported that the statue was formally handed over by federal officials to Cambodia. Sotheby’s:

had hoped to sell the object for $3 million in 2011. Sotheby’s pulled the item from sale, and, in late 2012, the United States Attorney’s Office in Manhattan sued the auction house on Cambodia’s behalf, contending that it had trafficked in stolen property. In a settlement reached last December, the auction house agreed to surrender the statue and the federal government said it found no fault with the auction house’s conduct. [...]  Sotheby’s is prepared to pay for the return of its statue [...], according to Andrew P. Gully, Sotheby’s worldwide director of communications. “We have provided information about several professional moving companies familiar with transporting antiquities,” he said in a statement, “and have offered to pay reasonable and documented costs of the transfer to Cambodia.”

The statue was originally part of a nine-figure group depicting characters from the Hindu epic the Mahabharata which which was split up by looters.