PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
Three 10th-century statues hacked from a temple in a Cambodian jungle and illicitly sold on the Western art market were welcomed back with much fanfare Tuesday.
In an elaborate ceremony at a central government building in the capital, traditional Cambodian dancers dressed in vividly colored silks knelt in front of the life-size sandstone statues before adorning them with jasmine flowers.
Two auction houses and a museum returned the statues of the Khmer warriors this month after concerted efforts by the Cambodian government to retrieve valuable antiquities pilfered in the 1970s when the nation was first overtaken by the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime and then plunged into decades of bitter civil war.
On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Sok An told the assembled dignitaries, "Today, after a demanding and challenging effort, the statues and pedestals stand before us, ready to be reunited by the restoration team of the National Museum of Cambodia."
"We will pursue a campaign to complete the ensemble by recovering the three statues that are still missing," he added.
The statues were among nine mythological figures that used to stand at Koh Ker -- a temple complex in western Preah Vihear highly revered for its artistic, religious and historical significance. The scene depicts a battle from a war of succession in Hindu mythology, where Bhima defeats his cousin Duryodhana as seven warriors watch.
Cambodia has made clear its desire to see the return of all the statues. Two of them, belonging to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, were already returned last year, and two remain at the Denver and Cleveland Museums of Art in the U.S.
With the help of the U.S. government and UNESCO,Cambodia first got the ball rolling in 2012 when it filed a suit against the New York-based auction house Sotheby's after the institution put a statue known as "The Duryodhana" -- valued at about $3 million -- up for sale. Earlier this year, with the case still ongoing, Sotheby's agreed to return the statue.
The mighty "Duryodhana" was one of the impressive pieces unveiled at Tuesday's ceremony, alongside statues known as the Bhima and Balarama, returned by the Norton Simon Museum of California and Christie's auction house, respectively.
While legal action was originally taken against Sotheby's in the case of the "Duryodhana," Christie's returned its statue voluntarily after discovering it was looted. The Norton Simon Museum did the same.
Tess Davis, an affiliate researcher at the University of Glasgow who specializes in cultural heritage law, said Tuesday, "It's a very exciting day, not just for Cambodia, but for all countries that have been plundered."
"Cambodia's on the right side of history here," she added.
Anne Lemaistre, head of Cambodia's UNESCO office, called the statues' return "a big coup" for Cambodia and said that it might act as an incentive for other museums and private collectors to return looted antiquities.
"Now let's see what Cleveland would say," Lemaistre said, referring to the museum’s recent denial that the Angkor statue in its possession was looted.
Buddhist majority Cambodia, which has a rich cultural heritage influenced by Indian traditions and Hindu legends, is famed for its temples, and the intricate engravings of graceful traditional dancers and mythological characters adorning their walls.
Representatives from Christie's and the Norton Simon who attended the ceremony said they were delighted to have been able to help Cambodia recover some of its valuable cultural heritage.
"These statues... were callously hacked... and trafficked on the international art market," Jeff Daigle, deputy chief of mission for the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia, said in a speech, expressing the U.S.’s commitment to stopping the illegal arts trade.
"We must not forget that the commercial trade in illicit art remains," he added.
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