From which Cambodian temple complex were the returned statues looted?
New York’s District Attorney handed two 10th‑century sandstone statues to Cambodian officials on 26 March 2025, capping a probe that traced them through art‑market middlemen and offshore trusts. The guardian figures, stolen from the Koh Ker temple complex during the 1990s civil war, had sat in a Madison Avenue catalogue at US $3 million each. Investigators matched tool marks on severed ankles with plinths still in the jungle using old looters’ Polaroids. Cambodia will tour the statues in an exhibition titled ‘Statues in Exile,’ charting each artefact’s journey from theft to restitution. Prosecutors hint at more seizures tied to the same smuggling ring, showing paperwork aged in the dark can still be unpicked by forensic tech.
