International conventions
It is however important to note that while threats to the
Angkorian heritage increased dramatically during this transitional
period, so did possibilities for protective action. In November
of 1991 H.R.H. Prince Norodom Sihanouk signed the instruments
of accession to the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection
of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, thereby completing
Cambodia's ratification of the three main existent international
instruments for the protection of cultural property - the
1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property
in the Event of Armed Conflict, the
1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing
the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Cultural Property,
and the
1972 World Heritage Convention. Finally, the
UNIDROIT Convention should be enacted very soon ; it
constitutes a significative improval in the fight against
illicit cultural goods trafic at the international level.
Submission of a request to the US government for restrictions
on the importation of Khmer cultural heritage into the United
States
After years of preparation, the Royal Khmer Government
submitted, in April of 1999, a request to the Government
of the United States of America to impose restrictions on
the importation of Khmer cultural objects onto US territory.
The request is based on the following legal grounds:
- Public international law: The "Convention on the
Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import,
Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property,
16 November 1970", particularly its article 9 which
reads: "Any State Party to this Convention whose
cultural patrimony is in jeopardy from pillage of archaeological
or ethnological materials may call upon other State Parties
who are affected. The State Parties to this Convention
undertake, in these circumstances, to participate in a
concerted international effort to determine and to carry
out the necessary concrete measures, including the control
of exports and imports and international commerce in the
specific materials concerned. Pending agreement each State
concerned shall take provisional measures to the extent
feasible to prevent irremediable injury to the cultural
heritage of the requesting State"
- US Public law: The "Convention on Cultural Property
Implementation Act", Public Law 97-446.
The request, which, if accepted, is to serve as the basis
for US import restrictions and emergency measures for the
protection of Cambodian cultural property, contains abundant
evidence and commentary demonstrating that the current situation
regarding Cambodian cultural property meets the requirements
set out by US Public Law in order to obtain US measures
pursuing the 1970 UNESCO Convention.
The Art Loss Register Database
The APSARA Authority and UNESCO plan to present on a database
called Art Loss Register all the pieces that have been stolen
from the Angkor Storehouses between 1972 and 1994. This
database, specialized in the fight against illicit traffic
of art pieces, is widely used by banks, insurance dealers
and art sellers to check the legality of the pieces they
wish to buy. The pieces presented in the book Looting in
Angkor : one hundred missing objects (from ICOM) are already
included in this database. Though the figures have not been
definitively determined, it is estimated that some hundreds
of objects disappeared from the Angkor Conservation during
these past few decades.
Restitution of stolen cultural objects
Despite these diverse national and international efforts,
sales of stolen Khmer cultural property are evidently and
publicly taking place still, and involve the most renowned
auction houses in Western capitals. Significant progress
has however been made, on the international level, in slowing
this illicit traffic:
- A sandstone head (inventory DCA 1664) was sold
by Sotheby’s (lot 143) in London in June 1985. It
was subsequently found to be in the possession of the Honolulu
Academy of Arts in the USA. Negotiations for its return
began in February 1997.
- In November 1988, Cambodia’s former Prime
Minister Son Sann asked the British authorities to stop
an auction sale at Sotheby’s in London where two Vishnu
statues were to be sold. Both objects were still marked
with inventory numbers. This action did not succeed in halting
the sale, yet, highly publicized, it drew much-needed attention
to the issues at hand.
- Over the past decade many objects have been seized
by Thai police, often working in collaboration with the
Thai National Department of Fine Arts. Material is confiscated
both during transport from the Cambodian border to Bangkok,
or from Bangkok galleries themselves. Most of these seized
pieces are now stored in the National Museum of Bangkok,
pending definitive identification. One case has however
been resolved: 13 objects confiscated from a Bangkok gallery
in 1990 were officially returned to Cambodia at the end
of 1996. This represents the largest return of Cambodian
artifacts to date. A series of pieces from the temple of
Banteay Chhmar, near the Thai border, were confiscated by
Thai authorities in 1999. Now held in the Prachinburi provincial
museum, they are to be returned to Cambodia in the near
future.
- On June 2, 1992 in a sale of Southeast Asian
art held at Sotheby's in New York, ICOM found a torso of
an eleventh-century feminine figure listed as stolen in
Looting in Angkor (first edition p.46, DCA 7081) to have
been sold to a Swiss gallery for US$63,250. The object was
subsequently returned, alternately, to several of its previous
owners. In August 1996 it was finally in the possession
of a New York art gallery (Doris Wiener Gallery). In May
of 1997, the gallery returned the statue to the Cambodian
authorities.
- An eleventh-century stone statue of a four-headed
Brahma, sold by Sotheby's in London on 21 October 1993 for
£2,070 was proven to be looted from Angkor. A photo
of the head is included on page 92 of the first edition
of Looting in Angkor (DCA 3489). The object was formally
identified by ICOM and the EFEO. After several years of
discussions between the Cambodian authorities, Sotheby’s
and the possessor of the object, it was returned in Phnom
Penh on December 4, 1996.
- The Metropolitan Museum in New York had, as part
of its South and Southeast Asian display, an early 10th-century
head of the Brahmanic god Shiva which had been removed from
a sculpture held in an Angkor Conservation storehouse. The
object is referenced in Looting in Angkor (first edition,
p. 80, DCA 5729). The Metropolitan informed ICOM they were
in possession of the piece. After several years of correspondence
between the Cambodian authorities and the Metropolitan,
the latter returned the sculpture to Cambodia in March 1997.
- On the same day, the Curator of the Metropolitan
Museum’s South and Southeast Asian collection returned
to Cambodia a second head which had also been reported as
stolen in Looting in Angkor (first edition, p. 77, DCA 5602).
Having been sensitized by the campaign to return stolen
objects, the possessor, an American collector, had mandated
the Metropolitan representative to return the head on his
behalf.
- In 1993, a piece which was in the hands of a
Parisian art dealer was returned to the Cambodian Embassy
in France. It should be noted that the dealer, sensitized
by campaigns regarding the protection of the Khmer cultural
heritage, voluntarily brought the stolen piece in his collection
to the attention of the Khmer authorities.
- In 1994 United States Customs in San Francisco,
California, seized a sculpted stone head. After identification
of the sculpture’s Khmer origin, and upon the request
of the Royal Khmer government, it was returned, in July
1996, by the Ambassador of the United States directly to
the King, who transferred it to the National Museum of Phnom
Penh.
- In October 1995, Dutch Customs seized four artifacts
of Asian origin in the Rotterdam Harbor. Two of these objects
were proven to be of Cambodian origin. After a request made
by the Cambodian Consulate, the two objects were returned
to Cambodia.
- In a catalogue published by Sotheby’s London
on 17 October 1996 and entitled «Islamic and Indian
Art», two Khmer cultural objects were presented: a
12th-century Khmer sandstone relief of a feminine divinity
(p.64 of the Catalogue) and a large 13th c. Khmer sandstone
balustrade finial in the form of a naga (mythical serpent)
(p.65 of the catalogue). These objects were presented as
coming from Cambodia. The Cambodian authorities have requested
Sotheby’s to return these objects.
- Another piece was restituted by the National
Museum of Sydney, Australia, in May 1997.
- In 2000, several meters of a decorated wall of Banteay Chmar
were seized at the Khmero-Thai border. An important part
of this wall has unfortunately disappeared.
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