By Ek Tha
PHNOM PENH, 26 February 2013 (PRU) – His Excellency
Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Sok An welcomed and thanked a delegation from the
U.S. Attorney’s Office who arrived in Cambodia to meet cultural experts as part
of its efforts to support legal arguments for returning the looted statue
Duryodhana to Cambodia.
Dr. Sok An, on behalf of the Royal Government, said
that the ongoing legal battle is “very tough” and he thanked the delegation for
its strong cooperation concerning the 10th century sandstone statue.
The Deputy PM said in the meeting, “We consider this
mission a very noble task”.
The U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New
York has said that the statue was stolen from the Prasat Chen temple at Koh Ker
in Cambodia. The Koh Ker site is very significant from religious, historical
and artistic perspectives, and the Duryodhana is considered to be a piece of
extraordinary value to the Cambodian people and part of their cultural heritage,
according to the U.S. Attorney’s website (http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/April12/duryodhanastatueforfeiturepr.pdf).
Cambodia has teamed up with national and
international cultural experts to collect data to support the claim for the return
of the statue. Sharon Levin, Chief of the Asset Forfeiture Unit, who is handling
the case, said in the meeting that their investigation has led them to believe
that the statue was looted from Koh Ker in 1972.
Levin said that the statue was smuggled from
Cambodia via Thailand to the UK, where it was auctioned in 1970s.
“The U.S. position is that the statue is owned by
Cambodia”, Levin, an Assistant U.S. Attorney, said in the meeting, which was
also attended by Jeff Daigle, the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy
in Phnom Penh, along with other U.S. attorneys and Cambodian cultural experts.
The statue remained in the possession of a private
collector and his/her heirs until March 2010, when Sotheby’s entered into a
consignment agreement to sell the statue at auction in the United States,
according to the website of the United States Attorney’s Office.
In April 2010, Sotheby’s imported the Duryodhana
into the United States and made arrangements to sell it, despite knowing that
it was stolen from Koh Ker.
In March 2011, immediately before the planned
auction, the Cambodian Government asked Sotheby’s to remove the statue from
auction. Sotheby’s withdrew the statue, but it remains in their possession.
The delegation’s visit from 24 – 28 February during
which they also visit the Koh Ker which was the capital of the ancient Khmer
empire from 928 to 944 A.D. in Cambodia and had a vast complex of sacred
monuments that included dozens of temples, sanctuaries, a terraced
pyramid-temple, and towers.
The Duryodhana once stood on a pedestal near the
entry to the western pavilion of Prasat Chen, and the feet of the statue remain
there today. Prasat Chen is a temple at Koh Ker that is dedicated to the Hindu
God Vishnu.
Cambodia is pleased with U.S. assistance in the
field of culture and said Cambodia looks to list Koh Ker as a World Heritage
Site.
His Excellency Dr. Sok An is selected as Chairperson
for the upcoming of the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee to be held
in Phnom and Siem Reap, the home of Angkor, in June of this year. End.