30 asialife Cambodia asialife Cambodia 31
The sound of shouting from Phimeneakas - a 13th-century temple
in the heart of Siem Reaps Angkor Park - led tour guide Tor Vutha*
to stop his car and peer through the darkness of the August
night.
There were six or seven men with trucks and motorbikes trying to
lift a lion statue from the ground of the temple onto a truck, he
says.
At first I thought they worked for the Apsara Authority - but it
was very late. I called a friend who worked as a guard and told him
to wake up as something bad was happening.
Unable to lift the 150-kilogram statues and attracting unwanted
attention, the would-be looters ran away before authorities arrived
- leaving only cigarette butts and tyre tracks as a record of their
visit.
But last year's attempted heist was only unusual because of its
location, says Hab Touch, director general of heritage protection
at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts.
Normally, [Angkor temples] are under high protection. Its worse
in the border regions because its very difficult to protect the
artifacts 24 hours a day, he says.
L o s t H e r i t a g eFrom his office in Phnom Penh, Hab
coordinates hundreds of officials who are engaged in a battle to
preserve Cambodia's histoical sites. Looted Khmer artifacts can
fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales from New York to
Singapore.
Tales of statues stolen to order, newly discovered burial sites
picked bare in hours, and the complicity of auction houses are
nothing new in the struggle to protect the future of Cambodias
past, he says.
Its not only a legal issue but an ethical issue. If a statue has
been taken, or had one part chopped off and one left behind, is it
ethical, is it right? Its an antiquity - its for the
purpose of human benefit of the world, not one or two
people.
Dougald OReilly, the founder of NGO Heritage Watch, agrees and
believes that the scale of looting is of such magnitude that it
requires immediate and serious attention.
Thousands of years of history have been largely wiped out in the
space of a decade. Cambodia has lost most of the evidence necessary
for archaeologists to understand the development of Khmer culture
and the rise of Angkor, he says.
B l a c k M a r k e t Tr a i lWhere and how often looting occurs
is easy to chart, according to deputy head of the education and
publications department of the National Museum, Visot Chhay.
The latest trend is the targeting of newly unearthed
pre-Angkorian burial sites, which provide some of the earliest
evidence of Khmer civilisation in Cambodia.
Its rare for researchers to find an untouched burial plot.
Maybe every three years we find a new, untouched site. The
temples arent open like they were in the 1990s. Their statues dont
seem to be in as much danger as other objects like metals, ceramics
or gold from graves, he says.
Generally, the looted artifacts are bought from villagers by
middlemen for as little as 2,000 riels for a piece of pottery and
up to $1,000 for a statue.
The middlemen smuggle purchases out of the country, often
through the Thai border, to be resold at perhaps ten times the
price, according to Visot.
Goods are often passed to antique dealers in Bangkok,
particularly in the River City area, says art historian and Friends
of Khmer Civilisation founder Helen Jessup. Its a major tourist
destination with some dealers who specialise in Cambodian stuff.
They wont bring out the real stuff unless someones a serious
buyer.
Interpol has reported stolen artifacts being found in the United
States, Switzerland, Singapore and Australia. Theres also a local
market for the illicit goods in Phnom Penh, with artifacts making
their way to Russian market to be sold to foreigners, says
Visot.
Cambodians arent big collectors of antiquities, he adds. The few
that do are wary of the bad luck an ancient statue or pot may carry
as people often believe those objects have a spirit inside them. If
you bring those kind of objects inside the house, the spirit may be
bad.
T h e H u n tPreventing antiquities from leaving Cambodia is
hard enough, but having them returned is even more difficult.
In 1993, UNESCO and the International Council of Museums
published the catalogue containing photos and descriptions of the
most prominent Angkorian statues, bas reliefs and other artifacts
looted since the 1970s Lon Nol regime.
To date just 10 of these have been recovered, says Hab Touch,
who along with Visot credits their return to the public attention
received by the list. It made the looted objects harder to
sell.
That publication forced dealers who have Cambodian collections
to send them back because they cannot sell them, explains
Visot.
But the list hasnt stopped some dealers from trying to sell
Khmer artifacts of doubtful origin, which are still popping up
everywhere from auction houses to eBay.
A Heritage Watch study showed the UK auction house Sothebys sold
377 Khmer artifacts, primarily sculptures and statues, in New York
between 1998 and 2011.Over 70
In 1924, writer Andr Malraux, later France's minister of
culture, is convicted of stealing priceless figurines from Banteay
Srei temple as well as over one tonne of stone from Angkor Wat.
From 1973 onwards, hundreds of statues, bas reliefs and
decorative columns are plundered from the Conservation d'Angkor
offices. Only 10 of the 100 highest-profile items have been
returned to date.
Vandalism and thefts from the main Angkor temples continue into
the late 1990s, with several stolen pieces reportedly returned by
Sothebys and the
New York Metropolitan Museum. Sales of stolen Khmer antiquities
peak in 1997-98, coinciding with the final surrender of the Khmer
Rouge which opens up overland smuggling routes to the Thai
border.
Local media reports in 1999 that looters have used pneumatic
drills to hack away 500 square feet of bas reliefs from the walls
of 13th century Banteay Chhmar temple.
In recent years, pre-Angkorian grave sites are targeted by
looters, especially in border provinces like Banteay Meanchey and
Prey Veng.
32 asialife Cambodia asialife Cambodia 33
percent of the auctioned items had minimal or no history of how
and when they came to leave Cambodia. Three items that didnt make
it to the auction block were included in the catalogue of looted
items and later repatriated to Cambodia.
P r o v i n g P r o v e n a n c eThe issue of provenance is key,
says Jessup. Most museums and dealers wont touch artifacts without
a clear ownership history dating back to at least 1970 when a
UNESCO convention requiring states to return stolen artifacts came
into force.
Antiquities taken from Cambodia before that date are exempt,
unless it can be directly proved they are stolen. Unscrupulous
dealers, however, can sell items with murky pasts to countries that
are not signatories to the convention.
Bertrand Porte, head of the cole Franaise d'Extrme-Orient in
Phnom Penh, is asked to authenticate pictures of Khmer artifacts
about once a month. Some turn out to be fake, others are real and
stolen.
I think most of the pieces that can be looted have been. But
those pieces are still out there, he says.
Many people send me emails and say, I saw that for sale what do
you think? Immediately with my colleagues we put together old
photos and documents showing where it is from and send it to the
Ministry of Culture and UNESCO.
One recent case involved a decorative archway called a lintel
that hailed from Cambodias Angkorian era capital at Koh Ker,
northeast of Siem Reap. It was owned by a collector in Canada. This
lintel is very important, we know where its coming from, we have
photos, says Porte.
F i g h t i n g B a c kResponsibility for protecting and
policing Cambodias temples and ruins is split. The intra-ministry
Apsara Authority is in charge of Siem Reaps Angkor Park, the
National Authority for Preah Vihear is tasked with preserving sites
in the north and the Ministry of Culture supervises the rest.
Arrests of looters in coordination with international law
enforcement agencies are handled by the Heritage Police. A special
Interior Ministry unit, set up in the mid-2000s, combats organised
smuggling and has officers in every province
In 2010, the Culture Ministry also published the Red List of
Cambodian Antiquities at Risk - a guide for customs agents, dealers
and museums around the world detailing four different categories of
Khmer artifacts at risk of being sold illegally.
Hab Touch says the list is part of an effort to better educate
Cambodian customs officials and international authorities of what
to look out for. Its success has spurred plans to create a national
database of Cambodias antiquities.
Then we will know what we have and where and also the movement
of the artifacts. I know its not easy but we have to do it, he
says.
Another step in the fight against antiquities smuggling is
building trust between villagers in remote regions and government
officials, explains Visot. Local corruption in the 90s has made
many people living in rural areas suspicious of handing over
archaeological finds for fear that they would be sold by
officials.
One recent positive sign, says Visot, has been a rise in the
number of remote village delegations travelling to the National
Museum and demanding to view statues and other objects theyve
handed to officials.
We want them to trust. Thats why when I travel I tell people
publically, please donate to the authorities, and well ensure its
protection for the next generation of the nation, says Hab.
The Red List, recent agreements between Cambodia and Australia
and the US, better coordination with Interpol and increased US
border security after 9/11, has made moving Khmer artifacts more
difficult, says Jessup.
But its still a continuing problem. Pride in their own cultural
heritage among
Cambodians is going to be the ultimate protection, she says. If
you educate people about their own culture and they derive a sense
of pride and identity from it, I think this is probably one of the
best weapons to protect it.
*The guide's name has been change to protect his identity.
Artifacts considered to be at risk of illegal export included in
the 2010 Red List of Cambodian Antiquities at Risk.