PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA—Voice of America reports that more than 100 artifacts held in a private collection in Bangkok and London will be returned to Cambodia, after three years of negotiations with the Cambodian government and the filing of federal charges in New York alleging falsifying of provenance, invoices, and shipping documents. Most of the items date to the Khmer Empire, and are thought to have been looted from Cambodia during the unrest of the late twentieth century, when the sites of Angkor Wat and Koh Ker were heavily damaged. The artifacts to be returned include tenth-century sandstone sculptures of Shiva, one of the three principal deities of Hinduism, and Skanda, the god of war; a twelfth-century sandstone sculpture of Prajnaparamita, the female personification of wisdom of Mahayana Buddhism; and an eleventh-century bronze statue of an unnamed male deity. Researcher Thuy Chanthourn said that many looted Cambodian artifacts remain in private collections in Thailand, England, France, and the United States. To read about the discovery of unknown Khmer sites in the countryside surrounding Angkor, go to "Laser Scanning," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of the Decade.
