The looting of temples and burial sites has decimated

thousands of years of Cambodian archaeological

history. As efforts are made to return stolen artifacts,
Michael Sloan investigates the black market in
Khmer antiquities and the ongoing efforts to stop it.
Photography by Dylan Walker.

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 In 1924, writer Andr Malraux, later

France's minister of culture, is convicted
of stealing priceless figurines from Banteay
Srei temple as well as over one tonne of
stone from Angkor Wat.

The sound of shouting from Phimeneakas - a

13th-century temple in the heart of Siem Reaps
Angkor Park - led tour guide Tor Vutha* to stop
his car and peer through the darkness of the
August night.
There were six or seven men with trucks and
motorbikes trying to lift a lion statue from the
ground of the temple onto a truck, he says.
At first I thought they worked for the Apsara
Authority - but it was very late. I called a friend
who worked as a guard and told him to wake
up as something bad was happening.
Unable to lift the 150-kilogram statues and
attracting unwanted attention, the would-be
looters ran away before authorities arrived leaving only cigarette butts and tyre tracks as a
record of their visit.
But last year's attempted heist was only
unusual because of its location, says Hab
Touch, director general of heritage protection
at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts.
Normally, [Angkor temples] are under high
protection. Its worse in the border regions
because its very difficult to protect the
artifacts 24 hours a day, he says.

Lost Heritage

From his office in Phnom Penh, Hab

coordinates hundreds of officials who are
engaged in a battle to preserve Cambodia's
histoical sites. Looted Khmer artifacts can
fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales
from New York to Singapore.
Tales of statues stolen to order, newly
discovered burial sites picked bare in hours,
and the complicity of auction houses are
nothing new in the struggle to protect the
future of Cambodias past, he says.
Its not only a legal issue but an ethical
issue. If a statue has been taken, or had one
part chopped off and one left behind, is it
ethical, is it right? Its an antiquity - its for the
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New York Metropolitan Museum. Sales of

stolen Khmer antiquities peak in 199798, coinciding with the final surrender
of the Khmer Rouge which opens up
overland smuggling routes to the Thai
border.

From 1973 onwards, hundreds of statues,

bas reliefs and decorative columns are
plundered from the Conservation d'Angkor
offices. Only 10 of the 100 highest-profile
items have been returned to date.

Local media reports in 1999 that looters

have used pneumatic drills to hack away
500 square feet of bas reliefs from the walls
of 13th century Banteay Chhmar temple.

Vandalism and thefts from the main

Angkor temples continue into the late
1990s, with several stolen pieces
reportedly returned by Sothebys and the

In recent years, pre-Angkorian grave

sites are targeted by looters, especially in
border provinces like Banteay Meanchey
and Prey Veng.

purpose of human benefit of the world, not

one or two people.
Dougald OReilly, the founder of NGO
Heritage Watch, agrees and believes that the
scale of looting is of such magnitude that it
requires immediate and serious attention.
Thousands of years of history have been
largely wiped out in the space of a decade.
Cambodia has lost most of the evidence
necessary for archaeologists to understand the
development of Khmer culture and the rise of
Angkor, he says.

B l a c k M a r k e t Tr a i l

Where and how often looting occurs is easy

to chart, according to deputy head of the
education and publications department of the
National Museum, Visot Chhay.
The latest trend is the targeting of newly
unearthed pre-Angkorian burial sites, which
provide some of the earliest evidence of
Khmer civilisation in Cambodia.
Its rare for researchers to find an
untouched burial plot.
Maybe every three years we find a new,
untouched site. The temples arent open like
they were in the 1990s. Their statues dont
seem to be in as much danger as other
objects like metals, ceramics or gold from
graves, he says.
Generally, the looted artifacts are bought
from villagers by middlemen for as little as
2,000 riels for a piece of pottery and up to
$1,000 for a statue.
The middlemen smuggle purchases out of
the country, often through the Thai border,
to be resold at perhaps ten times the price,
according to Visot.
Goods are often passed to antique dealers in
Bangkok, particularly in the River City area, says
art historian and Friends of Khmer Civilisation
founder Helen Jessup. Its a major tourist

destination with some dealers who specialise in

Cambodian stuff. They wont bring out the real
stuff unless someones a serious buyer.
Interpol has reported stolen artifacts being
found in the United States, Switzerland,
Singapore and Australia. Theres also a local
market for the illicit goods in Phnom Penh,
with artifacts making their way to Russian
market to be sold to foreigners, says Visot.
Cambodians arent big collectors of
antiquities, he adds. The few that do are wary of
the bad luck an ancient statue or pot may carry
as people often believe those objects have
a spirit inside them. If you bring those kind of
objects inside the house, the spirit may be bad.

The Hunt

Preventing antiquities from leaving Cambodia

is hard enough, but having them returned is
even more difficult.
In 1993, UNESCO and the International
Council of Museums published the catalogue
containing photos and descriptions of the
most prominent Angkorian statues, bas reliefs
and other artifacts looted since the 1970s
Lon Nol regime.
To date just 10 of these have been
recovered, says Hab Touch, who along
with Visot credits their return to the public
attention received by the list. It made the
looted objects harder to sell.
That publication forced dealers who have
Cambodian collections to send them back
because they cannot sell them, explains Visot.
But the list hasnt stopped some dealers
from trying to sell Khmer artifacts of doubtful
origin, which are still popping up everywhere
from auction houses to eBay.
A Heritage Watch study showed the UK
auction house Sothebys sold 377 Khmer
artifacts, primarily sculptures and statues, in
New York between 1998 and 2011.Over 70
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percent of the auctioned items had minimal

or no history of how and when they came
to leave Cambodia. Three items that didnt
make it to the auction block were included
in the catalogue of looted items and later
repatriated to Cambodia.

Proving Provenance

The issue of provenance is key, says

Jessup. Most museums and dealers wont
touch artifacts without a clear ownership
history dating back to at least 1970 when
a UNESCO convention requiring states to
return stolen artifacts came into force.
Antiquities taken from Cambodia
before that date are exempt, unless it
can be directly proved they are stolen.
Unscrupulous dealers, however, can sell
items with murky pasts to countries that are
not signatories to the convention.
Bertrand Porte, head of the cole
Franaise d'Extrme-Orient in Phnom Penh,
is asked to authenticate pictures of Khmer
artifacts about once a month. Some turn out
to be fake, others are real and stolen.
I think most of the pieces that can be
looted have been. But those pieces are still
out there, he says.
Many people send me emails and say,
I saw that for sale what do you think?
Immediately with my colleagues we put
together old photos and documents showing
where it is from and send it to the Ministry of
Culture and UNESCO.

One recent case involved a decorative

archway called a lintel that hailed from
Cambodias Angkorian era capital at Koh
Ker, northeast of Siem Reap. It was owned
by a collector in Canada. This lintel is very
important, we know where its coming from, we
have photos, says Porte.

Fighting Back

Responsibility for protecting and policing

Cambodias temples and ruins is split. The
intra-ministry Apsara Authority is in charge
of Siem Reaps Angkor Park, the National
Authority for Preah Vihear is tasked with
preserving sites in the north and the Ministry of
Culture supervises the rest.
Arrests of looters in coordination with
international law enforcement agencies are
handled by the Heritage Police. A special
Interior Ministry unit, set up in the mid2000s, combats organised smuggling and
has officers in every province
In 2010, the Culture Ministry also
published the Red List of Cambodian
Antiquities at Risk - a guide for customs
agents, dealers and museums around the
world detailing four different categories of
Khmer artifacts at risk of being sold illegally.
Hab Touch says the list is part of an effort
to better educate Cambodian customs
officials and international authorities of what
to look out for. Its success has spurred
plans to create a national database of
Cambodias antiquities.

Then we will know what we have and where

and also the movement of the artifacts. I know
its not easy but we have to do it, he says.
Another step in the fight against antiquities
smuggling is building trust between villagers
in remote regions and government officials,
explains Visot. Local corruption in the 90s
has made many people living in rural areas
suspicious of handing over archaeological finds
for fear that they would be sold by officials.
One recent positive sign, says Visot, has
been a rise in the number of remote village
delegations travelling to the National Museum
and demanding to view statues and other
objects theyve handed to officials.
We want them to trust. Thats why
when I travel I tell people publically, please
donate to the authorities, and well ensure
its protection for the next generation of the
nation, says Hab.
The Red List, recent agreements between
Cambodia and Australia and the US, better
coordination with Interpol and increased US
border security after 9/11, has made moving
Khmer artifacts more difficult, says Jessup.
But its still a continuing problem.
Pride in their own cultural heritage among
Cambodians is going to be the ultimate
protection, she says. If you educate people
about their own culture and they derive a
sense of pride and identity from it, I think this is
probably one of the best weapons to protect it.
*The guide's name has been change to
protect his identity.

Artifacts considered to be at risk of illegal export included in the 2010 Red List of Cambodian Antiquities at Risk.

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