Looting in Angkor | Pillage a Angkor

In spite of its many flaws (no index, no table of contents, inconsistent indexation of stolen artworks…), this document is a valuable contribution to the study on systemic looting and damaging of Khmer artworks – mainly stone statues — during the decades 1970s-1980s.

Tellingly enough, one entire section is devoted to severed heads stolen from statues, many of them stocked at the Dépot de la Conservation d’Angkor (DCA) and looted during the Cambodian civil war. 

Since the publication of this temptative catalog, substantial progress has been made in tracing and retrieving looting arts. International bodies, including museums worldwide, have developed a more inventive approach to this scourge. Nevertheless, the origin of numerous Khmer artefacts in public and private collections remain murky to the day. Efforts deployed by the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts in the last decade have contributed to make this process more transparent and efficient. 

It would be astonishing that this kind of compilation would be developed nowadays without the contribution of Cambodian specialists and/​or officials, as it was the case in 1997. 

ADB Input: A new census of missing Khmer artefacts, with a better indexation and accessibility, allowing unsuspicious collectors to identify pieces or fragments they bought in absolutely good faith during the last decades, seems more than ever necessary.

An example of recovered artwork between the first and second edition of the catalog.