ABSTRACT
This chapter presents and discusses the cases of successful return which are basically the result of a well-functioning bilateral agreement between the United States and Cambodia, decisively complemented by UNESCO's commitment, Interpol's support and French scholars' dedication to protect and retrieve Cambodian cultural heritage. Moreover, this lack of detailed studies complicates the efforts of today's archaeologists to identify the sculptures looted. Thus, the whole network of plunderers, smugglers, traders, art dealers and collectors who make the illicit trafficking of antiquities possible has remained obscure in the cases discussed in this chapter. The statues donated to the Met in four pieces as separate gifts between 1987 and 1992 had indeed been smuggled out of a remote jungle temple around the time of the country's civil war in the 1970s. The museum reacted promptly: the statue was returned to Cambodia in June 2014.
