The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has announced that it will be returning over a dozen pieces of ancient artwork to Cambodia and Thailand. This decision comes after it was discovered that these pieces were tied to an art dealer and collector who was involved in a large-scale antiquities trafficking network in Southeast Asia.
Many museums in the United States and Europe are facing the issue of dealing with collections that contain objects looted from Asia, Africa, and other places during centuries of colonialism or times of upheaval. The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be returning fourteen Khmer sculptures to Cambodia and two to Thailand as a result of this ongoing investigation.
The repatriation of these ancient pieces has been linked to well-known art dealer Douglas Latchford, who was indicted in 2019 for allegedly selling looted Cambodian antiquities on the international art market. The museum initially worked with the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan and the New York office of Homeland Security Investigations to return 13 sculptures tied to Latchford, and later determined that three more should also be repatriated.
The latest works being returned from the Metropolitan Museum of Art were made between the ninth and 14th centuries in the Angkorian period and reflect the Hindu and Buddhist religious systems that were prominent during that time.
Efforts have been underway by the museum to examine the ownership history of its objects, with a focus on the provenance of Nazi-looted artwork, as well as ancient art and cultural property. The museum has stated that there is no specific timeline for when the pieces will be returned.
In addition to this announcement, the museum has also been involved in returning other pieces of art linked to Latchford, including two objects in 2013, a load of centuries-old Cambodian jewelry, and stone and bronze artifacts in 2021. The focus on repatriating these objects is part of the ongoing efforts to address the issue of looted artwork within museum collections.