How stolen Cambodian artifacts ended up in American museums

Cambodia's cultural treasures, including thousands of sacred stone, bronze, and gold artifacts, have been systematically stolen from religious sites, potentially amounting to the greatest art heist in history. The plunder began nearly a century ago during French colonization but escalated dramatically in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s amid genocide, civil war, and political turmoil.

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This was hit very heavily by the looting gangs. They found gold, they found statues, they found many, many things.

Much of this looting was orchestrated by Douglas Latchford, a British antiquities dealer who kept some items and sold others to wealthy private collectors and prominent museums globally. Cambodia's government has dedicated the last 14 years to tracking down these stolen artifacts and reclaiming its history and heritage.

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It's remarkable to me just how much stuff is just scattered on the ground.

Angkor Wat, a nearly thousand-year-old religious temple complex, bears deep scars of plunder, with statues often found with hacked-off heads and feet. The devastation extends to nearly all of Cambodia's 4,000 temples, including remote sites like Sandak Mountain, which has been heavily looted. Brad Gordon, an American lawyer working with the Cambodian government, described the scene as a "pedestal graveyard."

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It's like a pedestal graveyard.

Gordon and his team, including investigators and archaeologists, brought Anderson Cooper to Sandak Mountain, highlighting the extensive damage. They noted that looters often removed heads first for easier transport, leaving behind pieces. The artifacts are not merely art to Cambodians; they are sacred objects, and their recovery is a matter of national identity and historical justice.

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We've all seen in museums these statues with no feet on them, and I don't think people realize the feet were hacked off. Because in order to steal them, that's the easiest way to-- to get them off the pedestal.