More looted antiquities welcomed home

For the second time in less than a week, the National Museum held a ceremony yesterday marking the homecoming of priceless Angkorian artifacts looted during the civil war. Two 10th-century Brahma heads, looted from a temple at the Koh Ker archaeological site in Preah Vihear, were added to the museum’s collection of antiquities, alongside a 10th-century Rama statue returned by an American museum on Monday.

The heads, which had formerly belonged to an unnamed private collector in Paris, were discovered by Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong in 1994 while he was the Cambodian ambassador to France, according to the release.

“At that time, my friend told me that he saw the two Brahma heads placed for sale at the price of one million US dollars at a shop in Paris,” Namhong was quoted as saying. “In 1994, the French courts decided that the artifacts belonged to Cambodia.”

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