Searching for Cambodia's stolen crown jewels

The hunt is on for Cambodia's stolen crown jewels, as thousands of priceless artifacts, plundered from temples over decades, are being tracked down to be returned home. Correspondent Anderson Cooper and a team visited world-famous Angkor Wat and other remote temples to investigate how this decades-long art heist was carried out.

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A lot of these temples have been heavily looted over decades, beginning in the genocide in the 1970s.

"A lot of these temples have been heavily looted over decades, beginning in the genocide in the 1970s," Cooper explained. The instability following the Khmer Rouge regime's fall in 1979 left Cambodia's temples unprotected, making them vulnerable to plunder, often by former child soldiers who then sold the artifacts to dealers.

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People were killed over these antiquities. Whenever I see a statue, I think, 'Who died to get this out of the ground, or get it out of a temple, and to move it here?'

American lawyer Brad Gordon, hired by the Cambodian government, calls the looted antiquities "blood antiquities," noting that violence and murder were associated with their trade. He took Cooper to Sandak Mountain, a heavily looted site where pedestals and severed statue feet attest to the plunder. Archaeologists believe gold brought to the temple may have motivated some looting.

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It's like something out of an Indiana Jones film. It's a crumbled temple...and it's completely in a forest. It's overgrown.

A breakthrough came when Gordon met Toek Tik, a former Khmer Rouge child soldier codenamed "Lion." Tik described finding hundreds of jars filled with jewelry. Gordon also investigated Douglas Latchford, a British antiquities dealer whose books showcased Cambodian artifacts, some of which Toek Tik recognized from Sandak Mountain.

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It's like a pedestal graveyard.