Memorandum of Law in Support of the Gov't's Opposition to Claimants' Sotheby's Inc.

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Prosecutors File Arguments in Effort to Return Cambodian Statue

A 2011 Sotheby’s catalog shows a thousand-year-old statue believed to be from the Koh Ker temple in Cambodia.

August 21, 2012
By TOM MASHBERG
The New York Times

Federal prosecutors seeking to repatriate a 10th century statue to Cambodia filed court papers Monday accusing Sotheby’s of knowing the sculpture “was an important piece of cultural property that had been stolen” from a remote temple complex when the auction house put the massive sandstone artifact up for sale in March 2011.

In June, Sotheby’s had asked a federal judge in Manhattan to dismiss the U.S. government’s civil action to force the return of the statue of a Hindu warrior that was originally located at a temple site in Koh Ker.

Sotheby’s has argued that Cambodia never declared ownership of the statue before the auction house sought to sell it for as much as $3 million on behalf of its Belgian owner and that no one has provided proof the item was stolen.

Antiquities Dispute Pits Cambodia Against Establishment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjAGbVRU52w

Cambodian officials say they are considering asking US museums for the return of their stolen objects.

The Cambodian government has filed suit in a US court to have a statue that was looted from this site seized from the giant auction house Sotheby’s.

Brian Calvert, VOA Khmer

21 July 2012

LOS ANGELES - Two empty pedestals at Koh Ker temple, in Siem Reap province, mark a battleground that has big implications for Western museums. They are the feet of two looted statues that ended up in America.

The Cambodian government has filed suit in a US court to have a statue that was looted from this site seized from the giant auction house Sotheby’s. And now Cambodian officials say they are considering asking US museums for the return of their stolen objects.

Jason Felch, an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times and an author on a book about the antiquities trade, says the case is drawing battle lines.

Should Cambodian 'blood antiquities' be returned?

This kneeling figure at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was estimated to have been carved around 921 to 945.

Thu June 7, 2012
By Mark V. Vlasic and Tess Davis, Special to CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Writers: Met and Sotheby's have ancient figures thought to have been looted in Cambodia
• U.S. authorities have attempted to seize Sotheby's figures; now Cambodia seeking those at Met
• Vlasic, Davis say some in art world act the victim because Cambodia wants its art back
• Writers: Why would anyone want stolen art? Both sides must make reasonable concessions

Editor's note: Mark V. Vlasic, a senior fellow and adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University, served as the first head of operations of the joint United Nations-World Bank Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative and leads the international practice at Madison Law & Strategy Group PLLC. Tess Davis is the executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation and is working with Cambodia to combat the illicit trade in the kingdom's antiquities.

(CNN) -- The last time most New Yorkers focused on pillaged antiquities from Cambodia was likely after the release of the Angelina Jolie film "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," which featured the heroine's adventures through the country's famous archaeological wonder, Angkor Wat.

Now, real "tomb raiding" is making the news as the Cambodian government seeks to recover antiquities allegedly plundered from the kingdom's ancient sites during its civil war, ethnic cleansing and foreign occupation.

At Cambodia's request, the United States recently filed suit in U.S. District Court against Sotheby's in New York, demanding that the auction house forfeit a sandstone warrior that was "illicitly removed," according to the complaint, from a remote jungle temple. But according to a recent New York Times story, Cambodia has now set its sights on another Manhattan institution: the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It has specifically targeted the highlight of its Southeast Asian collection: two kneeling figures that archaeologists declare are companions to the contested Sotheby's piece.

If these stones could speak, what a story they would tell.

Sotheby’s Files Papers to Stop Cambodian Statue Export

The catalogue listing for the lot in question. (Courtesy ki-media.blogspot.com)

6/06/2012
By Dan Duray
Gallerist NY

The New York Times reports that Sotheby’s filed papers yesterday as part of an effort to prevent the repatriation of a 10th-century statue the house had planned to sell in March 2011, but pulled from the auction over claims from Cambodian representatives that it had been looted in the 1970′s.

More details about from that story:

…Sotheby’s argued, among other things, that under the Cambodian laws, the government needed to expressly declare its ownership of particular items, and that this never occurred with the statue, a point Cambodia disputes.

The story has an architect calling this claim “inaccurate and unconvincing.”

Cambodia's looted treasures

SOTHEBY'S WARRIOR: His feet are still at Prasat Chen, in Cambodia. (Department of Homeland Security / April 24, 2012)

Plundered temples mean the history of many is lost for the pleasure of a few.

April 25, 2012
By Tess Davis
Op-Ed

During the Cambodian civil war from 1970 to 1998, the Khmer Rouge and other paramilitary groups began decimating that country's ancient sites in search of treasures to sell on the international art market. Along with arms dealing and drug smuggling, the looting and trafficking of artifacts became organized industries, which helped finance one of the 20th century's most notorious regimes.

My colleagues and I have documented the painful scars from this plunder — desecrated tombs, beheaded statues and ransacked temples — at archaeological sites throughout Cambodia. We've spoken with looters, middlemen and dealers, and have even posed as collectors. The exact path of pillaged objects is admittedly difficult to trace. But when they do surface, more often than not, it is in the legitimate art world.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Sotheby's

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Cambodian statue sparks legal battle in US

14 April 2012
By Brigitte Dusseau (AFP)

NEW YORK — For a year, an ancient Cambodian statue of a warrior has been at the center of a legal battle in New York in which US authorities back Cambodia's claim that the artwork was looted.

The standoff between Sotheby's auctioneers, who intended to sell the thousand-year-old statue, and the US government hardened on April 4 when a federal prosecutor in New York demanded its surrender.

For now, Sotheby's holds onto the work, but its future is unclear.

The US Attorney's office said in a statement that the "Duryodhana" statue was "stolen from the Prasat Chen temple at Koh Ker in Cambodia. The Koh Ker site is very significant from a religious, historical, and artistic perspective, and the Duryodhana is considered to be a piece of extraordinary value to the Cambodian people and part of their cultural heritage."

US Government, Sotheby's Battle Over Ancient Khmer Warrior Statue

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Cambodian Statue Stays at Sotheby's, for Now

Wednesday, April 11, 2012
By ADAM KLASFELD
Courthouse News Services

MANHATTAN (CN) - A 10th century statue that was allegedly looted from a HinduKhmer temple in Cambodia can remain in Sotheby's pending the resolution of forfeiture proceedings, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Duryodhana, which translates to "difficult to fight with," is a sandstone statue depicting an antagonist of the Mahabharata, an epic battle described in "The Bhagavad Gita."

Prosecutors believe that Duryodhana and a statue of his arch-nemesis, Bhima, were looted from the Prasat Chen temple in Cambodia in the 1960s or 1970s, as war raged in the neighboring Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge rose to power.

"These two statues once stood face to face, depicted at the moment of preparation for their epic battle, as chronicled in 'The Bhagavad Gita,'" the complaint states. "The site of this sculptural group is now surrounded by rubble from the building and only the pedestals on which they stood remain."

U.S. demands Sotheby's give up ancient Cambodian statue

Mon Apr 9, 2012

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday filed suit demanding auctioneer Sotheby's forfeit a 10th-century sandstone statue the government says was looted from a Cambodian temple.

The statue, known as the Duryodhana, is believed to have been stolen from the Prasat Chen temple at Koh Ker in Cambodia sometime in the 1960s or 1970s, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said in a statement.

The Duryodhana "was looted from the country during a period of upheaval and unrest," Bharara said. "With today's action, we are taking an important step toward reuniting this ancient artifact with its rightful owners."

If successful in the suit, the United States plans to return the statue to Cambodia.

Sotheby’s Retains Custody of Cambodian Statue

April 5, 2012
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
The New York Times

Ruling against the immediate seizure of a 1,000-year-old Cambodian statue the United States and Cambodian governments say was looted from its temple site, a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday gave Sotheby’s continued custody of the antiquity and called a hearing for April 12.

The judge, George B. Daniels, ordered Sotheby’s not to dispose of the sandstone statue, which the auction house had planned to sell for an unidentified Belgian client for up to $3 million last year, and to make it available for inspection by the Department of Homeland Security, which had sought its forfeiture as stolen property.

Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, filed a civil complaint on Wednesday against Sotheby’s, alleging that the auction house knew the statue had been stolen when it offered it for auction on March 24, 2011.

The government then planned to impound the sculpture this week for return to Cambodia.

Feds vs. Sotheby's: Antiquity looted in Cambodia, complaint says

The disputed Cambodian antiquity, as shown in court documents. (April 5, 2012)

April 5, 2012
By Tina Susman
Los Angeles Times

New York — Federal agents have threatened to seize from Sotheby's a 10th-century Cambodian sandstone statue, alleging the auction house planned to sell it despite warnings that looters had stolen the piece from its rightful place, adorning an ancient temple in the former Khmer kingdom.

Court documents filed Wednesday in New York say the Duryodhana statue -- listed as the "Defendant in rem" in the complaint -- was apparently torn from the Prasat Chen Temple in Koh Ker in northern Cambodia sometime in the 1960s or early 1970s, when the Asian nation was engulfed in civil unrest. The statue fell into the hands of a private collector in Belgium, whose heirs recently reached an agreement with Sotheby's to sell it on consignment.

"In April 2010, Sotheby’s imported the Duryodhana into the United States and made arrangements to sell the statue, despite knowing that it was stolen from Koh Ker," according to a statement from U.S. Atty. Preet Bharara in New York.

Text of lawsuit file by the US to recover Koh Ker statue looted from Cambodia

http://www.box.com/s/ac359113838035bf8685

Sotheby's, Famed Auction House, Caught Knowingly Trying to Sell Stolen Cambodian Statue, Prosecutors Say

Thu., Apr. 5 2012
By Graham Rayman
VillageVoice.com (Blogs)

Sotheby's tried to sell a 1,000-year-old Cambodian statue that was pilfered from an important religious site, even though the famed auction house knew it had been stolen, federal prosecutors say.

In a story filled with intrigue, spies, temple thieves, and the scent of money, federal prosecutors in Manhattan have brought a civil forfeiture action to return the statue to Cambodia after three decades. Sotheby's had been planning on selling it for $2 to $3 million.

"In April 2010, Sotheby's imported the Duryodhana into the United States and made arrangements to sell the statue, despite knowing that it was stolen from Koh Ker," federal prosecutors say.

The sandstone statue, known as the Duryodhana, was made in the 10th century, and resided at Prasat Chen temple at Koh Ker in Cambodia, until it was stolen in the 1960's or 1970's during the civil war and genocide which devastated the south Asian nation.

Sotheby's Asked to Give Up Ancient Hindu Statue

Thursday, April 05, 2012
By BARBARA LEONARD
Courthouse News Service

MANHATTAN (CN) - Federal prosecutors have filed suit to force forfeiture of a 10th century sandstone statue from the Sotheby's auction house so that it can return to Cambodia.

The Duryodhana was stolen from the Prasat Chen temple at Koh Ker in Cambodia as war raged in the neighboring Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975, according to the complaint.

"The Koh Ker site is of great significance from a religious, historical, and artistic perspective," according to the complaint, which explains that the city was an ancient capital that was once home to "a vast complex of sacred monuments."

Prasat Chen, a sandstone temple at Koh Ker dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, was looted in the 1960s or 1970s, prosecutors say.

Among the temple's lost artifacts are two large sandstone statues, the Duryopdhana and the Bhima.

Return of Stolen Cambodian Art

Dear Brothers and Sisters

YOU are invited into the Solidarity campaigning against the Sothebe company in order to return the stolen of Cambodia Art , so please find in the attachment for the Call for Action and for more detail and press up to raise hearing voice to the world that this great heritage is belong to Cambodia while this company refuses to return and ACILS will meet up with the Ministry of Culture and Fine Art on these but we also need your voice and supports as well , so please share and forward this information to people you know and invite them to show up with solidarity to distribute a leaflet (CALL FOR ACTION TO RETURN THE STOLEN CAMBODIAN ART) in front of the national museum on Friday tomorrow at 4 pm .

Looking to seeing you all there

In solidarity
Tharo
........................
Khun Tharo

Ancient Statue Sits in Limbo as Rights Question Looms

The pedestal and feet belonging to a disputed thousand-year-old statue, currently held by Sotheby's, in Cambodia. (Agnes Dherbeys for The New York Times)

Sotheby's catalog from March 24, 2011 includes a photo of a statue from Koh Ker, Cambodia. Some experts believe it was looted.

February 28, 2012
By TOM MASHBERG and RALPH BLUMENTHAL
The New York Times

He said French records in Paris indicate the statues were in place in 1939, and that the Koh Ker temple was thickly covered by jungle and inaccessible by road until it became a military staging area for Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese forces.

Cambodia has asked the United States government for help in recovering a thousand-year-old statue of a mythic warrior that sits in limbo at Sotheby’s in New York and that some experts believe was looted amid the convulsions of the Vietnam War and the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge.

The statue, a sandstone masterwork with a catalog estimate of $2 million to $3 million, was pulled from auction at the last minute last March after the Cambodian government complained it had been “illegally removed” from the country.

The Department of Homeland Security has opened an investigation, but Cambodian officials say they have held off asking for the piece to be seized while they negotiate with Sotheby’s for a private purchase. The auction house says that the seller is a “noble European lady” who acquired it in 1975. Although it was severed from its feet and pedestal, which were left behind at a remote Cambodian archaeological site, Sotheby’s says there is no proof that it was taken illegally.

Souren Melikian: Art casualties from Tibet to Cambodia find an eager market

A late 11th century Khmer torso of female deity, in the Baphuon Style, sold for $361,000 at Sotheby's (Photo: Chirtie's)
An 11th-century Khmer statue in the Baphuon style that fetched $.211 million at Chritie's (Photo: Sotheby's)
11th-century Khmer statue in the Baphuon style that fetched $2.11 million (Photo: Christie's)
A 13th-century bronze figure of Ganesa case in the Bayon style of Angkor, which exceeds its estimate by half, climbing to $52,000 (Photo: Sotheby's)

Friday, March 28, 2008
By Souren Melikian The International Herald Tribune (France)

New York: One thing art market actors cannot be accused of is being squeamish. If anyone should harbor any doubts on that score, the auctions of "Indian & South-East Asian Art" held on March 19 at Sotheby's and March 21 at Christie's will have dispelled them.

The title did not really do justice to the contents of the sales. Indeed, the gilt bronze Buddhist figures that each auction house ran on the glossy covers of their catalogues indicated that the thrust was not on India, nor even Southeast Asia, but Tibet. Nepal and Cambodia were also represented by outstanding works that did not qualify as Indian either.

By one of those ironies of fate, the Tibetan uprising broke out that week, stirring up memories of the massive destructions during the Chinese Cultural Revolution that swept away major architectural masterpieces in Tibet such as the 15th-century Densatil monastery and dispersed thousands of religious ritual works of art kept in monasteries. But if professionals had passing qualms at the thought that the untoward turmoil might compromise their commercial endeavors, they need not have worried. On March 19, Tibetan art did splendidly.

Sotheby's star lot, which was also the most problematic because of its ambitious estimate ($1.5 million to $2.5 million plus the sale charge) sold against the reserve for $1,385,000, still a large price for this 15th-century gilt copper figure of the seated Buddha. The head and neck were repeatedly painted until recent times, in keeping with Buddhist ritual tradition. Hence a sweet, mealy-mouthed expression, not exactly popular with most collectors.

The catalogue, however, pointed out "the pristine condition of the statue, with its gilding almost entirely intact" and assured that this "clearly indicates its highly regarded Tibetan status, where [sic] it is likely to have been placed in an exalted temple location out of danger of accidental damage or handling by devotees." Sadly, it was not out of danger of incidental removal. Were bidders encouraged by its provenance, the Berti Aschmann Collection which it had entered, the catalogue said, in 1961? Possibly. The fear of looting committed a long time ago is somehow not as nagging as that of more recent pilfering.

Actually, such fears, which are plausible in the case of magnificent bronzes tumbling onto the market without any reference to provenance or previous publication, did not affect the sale of some of the most important pieces seen at Sotheby's.

A group of 15th-century gilt bronze seated figures purporting to portray four historical lamas thus sprang up out of the blue. Cast at the same period as part of some set, they were in strikingly good condition and the Tibetan inscriptions incised on the pedestals named the lamas. Two of these, from the Sakya order, lived in the 13th and 14th centuries. Shang Koenchog Pel, born around 1250, was highly regarded by Kubilai Khan (1215-1294), the descendant of Gengis Khan and founder of the Mongol dynasty that ruled China from 1271 to 1368. Pel established the Sakya practice of Tantric Buddhist teaching which he passed on to his disciple Choje Draphupa Sonam Pel (1277-1346). The disciple's portrait is a gilt bronze figure of precisely the same dimension, 32 centimeters, or 12 5/8 inches, high, as the master's likeness, clearly made as a match.

Objects of veneration in the monastery they once belonged to, the two portraits respectively sold for $205,000 and $217,000, far above their estimates.

Yet, through one of those auction quirks that often affect the art of complex cultures understood by few in the Western world because the essential keys provided by their language makes them impenetrable, the next two portraits did not sell. Both immortalized the memory of Gyaltshap Kunga Wangchuk (1424-1478), the fourth abbot of the Sakya order in a famous religious center, the Ngor monastery, and both were signed by the sculptor, Tsugtor. The stiff estimates, $200,000 to $300,000, may have acted as deterrents.

Rarest of all, a large bronze bodhisattva of the 11th century bore a connection to another bodhisattva found in the rubble of the Sakya shrine at Piyang, not far from the border separating Chinese-held Tibet from the Tibetan areas incorporated with India. No provenance was given here either. Was that also rescued from the ruins of the Piyang shrine? The "Asian Private" buyer, as Sotheby's release put it, who paid the $181,000 that the 11th-century bronze cost, will have to work that out.

Earlier in the sale, works of art from another Buddhist land devastated by 20th-century events, likewise offered without a provenance, made one wonder how it is that so few questions are asked about just how works of art of major importance, for which no government would ever issue an export license, come to tumble on to the market.

Do the temples of Cambodia, erected by the Khmers at the height of their culture between the 10th and 13th centuries, ring so few bells? The admirable sandstone figure of a woman carved in the 11th century in the style known from Banteay Srei and described as having been acquired in 1986 was missing its head, very neatly chopped off, and both feet. It looked suspiciously like those sculptures broken off in situ. However, that did not harm its commercial performance. It ascended to $361,000, nearly six times the estimate.

Next came a 12th-century bronze bodhisattva from the Angkor period. No provenance at all here, no date of acquisition. The 34 centimeter four-armed statue did not sell as easily. Whether this was due to the high estimate, $80,000 to $120,000, plus the sale charge, or to angst caused by the fear of possible problems in some distant future, when perhaps proof of precise provenance will have to be produced for transactions to proceed legitimately, is hard to tell. Even so, it brought $73,000.

The next piece, a 13th-century bronze figure of Ganesha seated on a pedestal cast in the Bayon style of Angkor Wat, happily exceeded its high estimate by half, climbing to $52,000. Here, the catalogue noted "Provenance. Hong Kong Collection, 1980s," implying that it passed through the Hong Kong trade in those years. Some "provenance."

And that is the story of the entire art market handling sculpture or objects dug up in Tibet, Nepal, Cambodia, Indonesia or even India, but less so in the latter case. India, now more powerful, has been able to tighten the screws on illicit digging.

Two days later, at Christie's, things differed only in nuances. A Khmer statue of the 11th century in the Baphuon style had surfaced in the market in 1968, two years before the Unesco cut-off line of 1970, after which goods of uncertain provenance are deemed less kosher. At $2.11 million, it now holds the world record for Khmer sculpture. How nice!

Tibet contributed a fantastic gilt bronze figure of Avalokiteshvara cast in the 14th century and said to have been in Tokyo by the mid-1960s. It went for just over $1 million.

Another Avalokiteshvara, cast in the 9th century, did not have that luck. Despite the proportions reminiscent of the Srivijaya culture in Sri Lanka, the facial features point to a Cham origin. The mysterious Cham people who survive in communities scattered across Vietnam and Cambodia adhered to Hinduism and Buddhism in circumstances that elude us and later turned to Islam, when it reached the Vietnamese coast via the maritime route around the 11-12th century. Their distinctive art points to a strong collective personality. More might be learned about them if excavations were conducted. That is not going to happen. Few are concerned about the vanished culture of a minority on its way out.

With every major work projected onto the market by commercial digging, a portion of its past history is lost forever. The rare Cham bronze which, Christie's assured, came from a "Private English Collection [in the] 1990s" actually failed to sell as the hammer came down at $95,000. Thus was historical waste accompanied by commercial failure. From Tibet to Cambodia, the common treasure of mankind is squandered at a rate that matches that of melting Antarctica. And business goes on.