Cambodian leader Hun Sen revealed a collection of Angkor crown jewelry on March 17, 2023 that had recently been returned to the country after spending decades in Britain. During the unveiling ceremony, he urged the return of other long-lost treasures.
The collection includes gold crowns, necklaces, and amulets dating back to the Angkor period, spanning from the ninth to 14th centuries AD when the Khmer empire held sway over extensive parts of Southeast Asia. The Cambodian culture ministry has designated these items, which are expected to be exhibited at the national museum, as "priceless cultural heritage."
"I appeal to museums, institutions, and Khmer artifact collectors to continue returning these items voluntarily to Cambodia," stated Hun Sen during the ceremony, emphasizing the importance of returning heritage items to their countries of origin.
In the previous month, the culture ministry discreetly received 77 pieces from the family of the late British art dealer Douglas Latchford, who was posthumously revealed to be involved in art trafficking. Two 10th-century sculptures recently repatriated by the United States were also showcased during the event.
British Ambassador to Cambodia, Dominic Williams, expressed on Twitter that witnessing these formerly stolen artifacts displayed in their ancestral home was an "extraordinary privilege."
Douglas Latchford, who passed away in 2020 while awaiting trial in the United States for art trafficking, saw his family agree to return the antiquities to Cambodia in the same year. In 2021, the family had already returned five stone and bronze artifacts. The repatriation of these items is part of ongoing efforts to rectify the extensive theft of antiques and artifacts from Cambodia during the conflict and genocide of the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. In the past year, the United States also returned 30 looted items, including bronze and stone statues of Buddhist and Hindu deities carved over a millennium ago.