Sotheby’s: “Orgy of the Rich”

Ref: Sotheby's sued for return of 10th century Cambodian statue [see below]

The Duryodhana statue

School of Vice’s note:

It is Sotheby’s role as dealer and broker in the selling and buying of artworks and antiquities that help promote ‘legalised thefts’ of these artefacts worldwide, often from countries embroiled in political and social turmoil like Cambodia who are ill-equipped to protect its antiquities and heritage from well-organised art syndicates with auction houses like Sotheby’s at its heart. In the late 1980s/early 1990s the government - in - exile led by Mr Son San had also complained over Sotheby’s auction of priceless Khmer artefacts in London, however, since that government was not based in Phnom Penh Sotheby’s argued it had no case to pursue. In this on-going case Sotheby’s maintains that all the facts and evidence point to the sandstone’s legally imported status, yet one cannot help but wonders that at some point in time the object in dispute must have been illegally seized off its rightful owner: Cambodia, regardless of whether the country was being embroiled in political instability at the time. Unless, of course, one chooses to interpret the physically violent removal of this object from its pedestal at a temple ruins in a remote jungle in Cambodia [i.e. head and torso in New York, and feet still standing in northern Cambodia] as “legal”!

On the other hand, the private nature of Sotheby’s business dealings would often mean that, unlike the numerous Khmer antiquities owned by trusts and museums around the world which are at least disposed to public viewing and thereby serve to inform and educate the world about Khmer culture and history, the concerned object would likely vanish into the inaccessible world of private collections somewhere, or perhaps, in time may resurface at another lucrative auction like Sotheby’s! 

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Orgy of the Rich:

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Sotheby's sued for return of 10th century Cambodian statue

By Rosa Prince in New York – the Telegraph 5 April 2012

The Duryodhana statue is alleged to have been stolen from the Prasat Chen temple in Koh Ker, a remote jungle site 200 miles north of Phnom Penh which was the capital of the Khmer Empire until around 950 BC.

It is claimed that it was taken at some point during the 1960s or 1970s, when Cambodia was going through a time of violent political turmoil.

US Attorney Preet Bharara, for the Southern District of New York, accused Sotheby's of importing the statute for auction in its Manhattan office in March 2010 despite knowing it had been stolen.

The auctioneer obtained the Duryodhana from the heirs of a Belgian antiquities dealer, who bought it from an auction house in the United Kingdom in 1975.

If the statue is recovered, it will be returned to Cambodia, Mr Bharara said. He added: "With today's action, we are taking an important step toward reuniting this ancient artefact with its rightful owners."

The Duryodhana once stood on a pedestal near the entry to the western pavilion of Prasat Chen, a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu.

The feet of the statue remain there today.

At the request of the Cambodian government, Sotheby's agreed to remove the statue from sale last year, but it remains in the auctioneer's possession.

In a statement, Sotheby's said: "This sculpture was legally imported into the United States and all relevant facts were openly declared.

“We have researched this sculpture extensively and have never seen nor been presented with any evidence that specifies when the sculpture left Cambodia over the last one thousand years nor is there any such evidence in this complaint.”