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.

Couple arrested at Cambodian border with ancient relics

March 20, 2012
The Nation

A French couple was arrested at Aranyaprathet border checkpoint in Sa Kaeo province yesterday for possessing relics that appear to be ancient statues of two Hindu gods.

Officials have detained the two French nationals, aged 69 and 60 years old, for questioning because they did not have a permit to import historic items.

The couple was crossing the border from Poi Pet in Cambodia to Thai soil at the time of their arrest.

They told Thai officials that after they visited Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, they bought the statues from a market, believing the items were newly-made products.

The officials, however, were not convinced because the relics looked very old. So, the couple have been detained and the statues sent to the Fine Arts Department for examination.

Patina of the past

PHOTO: PORNPROM SATRABHAYA

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DOUGLAS LATCHFORD

A connoisseur of Khmer art talks about his latest tome on the subject


9/06/2011
Sean Trembath
Bangkok Post

For decades, Douglas Latchford has immersed himself in the world of Khmer art. Twelve years ago, he and co-author Emma C Bunker set out to write the definitive titles on the subject.

In less than a month, the final volume of the series will be released. Khmer Bronzes: New Interpretations of the Past, along with 2004's Adoration and Glory: The Golden Age of Khmer Art and 2008's Khmer Gold: Gifts for the Gods, form the most comprehensive study of Khmer art history ever published.

The 600-page tome has over 460 photographs, and compares Khmer pieces to bronzes from various other cultures of the same era.

Latchford spoke to Life about his collection of Khmer pieces, the process of finding new sculptures, and what is covered in the new book.

How did you build this collection of photographs?

Some of them are my collection, which my son took photos of. Some of them are from museums, like the Metropolitan New York or Phnom Penh museum. The other ones, in private collections, the owners provided the photographs.

New List Aims to Stem Tide of Cambodian Stolen Antiquities

A wall relief stolen in 1998 from Banteay Chhmar temple in north-western Cambodia, and later returned from Thailand. It now stands in the National Museum in Phnom Penh. (Photo: R. Carmichael)

02 March 2010
Robert Carmichael, VOA
Phnom Penh

Cambodia recently released a publication that it hopes will help reduce the number of artifacts being stolen from sites and temples and sold on the international market.

One thousand years ago, Cambodia's Angkorean empire was at its peak, ruling areas that are now part of Thailand, Vietnam and Laos.

Today, its achievements are admired by two-million foreign tourists who visit Cambodia each year. Many come to visit the crowning achievement of Angkor Wat, the famed temple-city in the Cambodia's northwest.

But, in recent years, Cambodia's rich cultural heritage has been plundered, with many temples and ancient sites ransacked for statues. Those trying to preserve the heritage sometimes struggle to do so.

Hab Touch is the outgoing director of the National Museum in Phnom Penh.

He says one method recently adopted to combat the theft of antiquities is the publication of a glossy eight-page brochure. The booklet lists the different categories of Khmer artifacts at risk of being stolen and smuggled abroad.

The publication, which is called the Red List, was drawn up in conjunction with the International Council of Museums.

The Red List will be distributed to Cambodian border and customs officials, as well as to museums and auction houses overseas, as part of a strategy to combat the illicit trade.

"I hope that the Red List will also play an important [role] in protecting Cambodian cultural artifacts and I strongly believe that the Red List, in the future, will build more capacity for the protection of Cambodian heritage," he said.

The items on the Red List range from jewelry and weapons to stone heads and bronze statues. The brochure lists beads from more than 2,000 years back and wooden items from just a century ago.

It is, in short, a comprehensive time capsule of Cambodian artistic achievement.

Douglad O'Reilly is the director of Heritage Watch, an organization set up to combat the plunder of Cambodia's cultural heritage. O'Reilly says the problem of looting is widespread.

"I think that the problem is fairly substantial. We are finding that in rural areas there is quite a lot of activity. There has been, since about 2000, a significant amount of heritage destruction at archaeological sites that date especially to the period from 500 BC to 500 AD," he said. "So people are excavating illegally a lot of cemetery sites in the search for carnellian and agate beads and glass beads and other artifacts."

O'Reilly applauds the idea behind the Red List, saying it has the potential to reduce dramatically the number of items being smuggled across the border -- as long as the brochures printed in Khmer and Thai actually reach the officials at the border posts.

O'Reilly explains that many Cambodians and Thais want looted Khmer antiquities for their talismanic properties - their perceived ability to bring good luck.

He says the problem of looting of prehistoric sites started ten years ago and peaked five years later. So is it getting better or worse?

"It is very difficult to say. It appears that there is a slight slowdown in the looting of these sites and the Cambodian government can be credited with making good efforts to crack down on a lot of the looting," added O'Reilly. "So there seems to be a tide for good, but I do think there is still an issue with the destruction of heritage in Cambodia."

For his part, Hab Touch at the National Museum believes matters are improving. He says other methods are also being used, such as teaching Cambodians in rural areas about the cultural value of antiquities.

"Of course we work also to educate local people and also to get the local people to participate in the protection. Because I think it is very important that, if they don't understand, they do not protect their own culture," said Hab.

But it is not hard to find stolen antiquities. Even a brief visit to Phnom Penh's Russian Market reveals trays of ancient beads, and Khmer artifacts continue to turn up for sale in the region.

As those working to protect them know well, if the demand for Khmer antiquities continues there will always be those prepared to supply - until the day comes when there is nothing left to take.

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.