New York's Met to return 14 stolen Cambodian artefacts

The Met had returned two objects in 2013. Pic/Getty Images

New York's Metropolitan Museum (the Met) has agreed to return 14 stolen cultural artefacts in its possession to Cambodia after several years of negotiations, the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said on Saturday.

The repatriation includes several masterpieces such as the breathtaking sculpture of a 10th-century female goddess (Uma) from the ancient royal capital of Koh Ker, a 10th-century bronze head of Avalokiteshvara which has a matching torso, now at the National Museum of Cambodia, and a 10th-11th century Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara sculpture.

Cambodian Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Phoeurng Sackona said the return of these artefacts, held by the Met is of utmost importance not only for Cambodia, but for humankind. "The enormous importance to the Cambodian people, of these returns, is difficult to overstate," she said. Much of the looting took place over a three-decade period of civil war between the mid-1960s to the late-1990s when the Khmer Rouge regime held power.

14
Number of artefacts the Met will return

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