{"id":1777,"date":"2021-10-26T17:45:57","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T21:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ielrblog.com\/?p=1777"},"modified":"2021-10-26T17:45:57","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T21:45:57","slug":"met-officials-and-u-s-investigators-discuss-possibility-of-cambodian-artifacts-stolen-from-ancient-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ielrblog.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/26\/met-officials-and-u-s-investigators-discuss-possibility-of-cambodian-artifacts-stolen-from-ancient-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"Met Officials and U.S. Investigators Discuss Possibility of Cambodian Artifacts Stolen from Ancient Sites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In October 2021, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York announced its collaboration with U.S. investigators from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s office to determine if the artifacts in the museum were stolen from Cambodia.<\/p>\n<p>While it is unclear what exactly promoted the Met officials to contact the Attorney\u2019s office, however, the <a href=\"http:\/\/thewashingtonpost.newspaperdirect.com\/epaper\/viewer.aspx?issue=10472021102600000000001001&amp;page=17&amp;article=7eb54f95-4395-4faa-a2ce-6589ff0b0528&amp;key=LmQ1W%2BkmOy2CvURrgElYng%3D%3D&amp;feed=rss\">Washington Post<\/a> and the Investigation Consortium of Investigations Journalists recently reported that\u00a0\u201cthe Met holds 12 pieces once owned or brokered by Douglas Latchford,\u201d an art dealer and alleged in long-time art trafficker in looted artifacts. Additional pieces came to the museum through his colleagues. In 2019, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdny\/pr\/antiquities-dealer-charged-trafficking-looted-cambodian-artifacts\">U.S. Attorney\u2019s office for the Southern District of New York<\/a>\u00a0indicted Latchford on several charges, including \u201cconspiracy and related charges pertaining to his trafficking in stolen and looted Cambodian antiquities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>The Met, Cambodia, and the Looted artifacts<\/em><\/p>\n<p>According to the Met&#8217;s press release statement, they are willing to reach out to the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in regards to the pieces and stated that they are \u201chappy to cooperate with any inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The statement also reflected that \u201cThe Met has a long and well-documented history of responding to claims regarding works of art, restituting objects where appropriate, being transparent about the provenance of works in the collection, and supporting further research and scholarship by sharing all known ownership history,\u201d in a press statement published on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, in 2013, the Met returned to Cambodian pieces and reportedly have researched the other pieces to see if they have been illegally looted. However, some argue that most museums are hesitant to thoroughly investigate Cambodian pieces, as there is a fear that they might be stolen.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Cambodia\u2019s Investigation<\/em><\/p>\n<p>According to Cambodian officials, the Met obtained the artifacts between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/24\/arts\/cambodia-met-museum-looted-antiquities.html\">1977 and 2003<\/a>. Cambodian officials expressed a strong desire to reobtain their artifacts. The culture minister said that it was disappointing and surprising to see that \u201cmany statutes of ours are in the Met.\u201d Through research and investigation, the Cambodian officials created a spreadsheet with 45 alleged looted artifacts that now sit at the Met and Cambodian officials are questioning additional 100 or so other artifacts.<\/p>\n<p>Cambodia now has a team of experts, archeologists, and investigators diggining into looted artifacts and excavating sites. A reformed former art dealer that was part of Latchford\u2019s clan is now assisting officials with locating artifacts in historic grounds.<\/p>\n<p>While the Met is working to cooperate with authorities, they have not made an effort to reach out to authorities in Cambodia, according to Bradly Gordon, the Attorney representing Cambodia. Gordon reported to <a href=\"http:\/\/thewashingtonpost.newspaperdirect.com\/epaper\/viewer.aspx?issue=10472021102600000000001001&amp;page=17&amp;article=7eb54f95-4395-4faa-a2ce-6589ff0b0528&amp;key=LmQ1W%2BkmOy2CvURrgElYng%3D%3D&amp;feed=rss\">the Washington Post<\/a> and said, \u201cthe amazing thing is that these museums say they\u2019re researching [the relics\u2019 origins], but they have not contacted us,\u201d and continued, saying, \u201cHow can they say they\u2019re researching when they aren\u2019t calling the country of origin?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Critics argue that the Met has not taken enough initiative to thoroughly research the pieces and return those pieces stolen from the origin country.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Analysis<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Met\u2019s recent efforts and initiative to return Cambodian looted artifacts is a set in the right direction; however, as critics suggest, the museum needs to take more action to research all artifacts the suspect are stolen \u2013not just from Cambodia but other countries as well. Other countries deserve the opportunity to benefit from their cultural property through research on their pieces and learn new details about their past.\u00a0 It appears that the problems with the Met are symptomatic of the problem of art museums not doing enough vetting of the pieces they collect, even after there are reports about potential looting of items.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In October 2021, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York announced its collaboration with U.S. investigators from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s office to determine if the artifacts in the museum were stolen from Cambodia. While it is unclear what exactly promoted the Met officials to contact the Attorney\u2019s office, however, the Washington Post and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-cultural-property-theft","7":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Met Officials and U.S. Investigators Discuss Possibility of Cambodian Artifacts Stolen from Ancient Sites | IELR Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ielrblog.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/26\/met-officials-and-u-s-investigators-discuss-possibility-of-cambodian-artifacts-stolen-from-ancient-sites\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Met Officials and U.S. Investigators Discuss Possibility of Cambodian Artifacts Stolen from Ancient Sites | IELR Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In October 2021, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York announced its collaboration with U.S. investigators from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s office to determine if the artifacts in the museum were stolen from Cambodia. 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