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The "One Hundred Missing Objects" Series

Stolen objects identified thanks to Looting in Angkor.

Thanks to Looting in Angkor, the first issue in the series "One Hundred Missing Objects" published in September 1993 (and 1997), several Khmer objects appearing in this work have been found and restituted to Cambodia.
All the following objects are now exhibited at the National Museum of Phnom Penh.

- DCA 1429
This 12th century sculpture of a female torso was stolen from the Dépôt de la conservation d'Angkor (Siem Reap) in the early 1980s. It was handed over by a French antiquities dealer, to Prince Norodom Sihamoni, the Cambodian Ambassador to UNESCO, during a ceremony organized by the Cambodian Embassy in Paris on December 4th, 1993.

- DCA 3489
This head was found in Great Britain in November 1994 after having been sold by Sotheby's in London (lot 555) on October 21, 1993. The Cambodian authorities made the owner an official request for the return of the head. Restitution took place in Phnom Penh on December 4th, 1996.
 

- DCA 5729
This head was found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA, in March 1994. The museum directors checked with ICOM and immediately made contact with the Cambodian authorities who made an official request for the return of the head. The Metropolitan Museum agreed to return the object in compliance with ICOM's Code of Ethics for Museums. Restitution took place in Phnom Penh on March 17th, 1997.

- DCA 5602
This head was sold in Hong Kong in the 1980s, and found on the American market in summer 1996. It was returned to Cambodia on March 17th, 1997.

- DCA 7081
This statuette sold by Sotheby's (lot 96) in New York on June 2nd, 1992 was found in Switzerland in January 1995. The owner (an American gallery) has agreed to return the object in June 1997.

- DCA 1664 and DCA 5499 (published again in the new edition on p. 100)
This sandstone head was sold by Sotheby's (lot 143) in London on June 10th, 1985. It was found at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, USA.
In April 1997, following the publication of the new edition of Looting in Angkor , the Honolulu Academy of Arts indentified another object (DCA 5499 p.100). Honolulu Academy of Arts has agreed to return these objects in compliance with ICOM's Code of Ethics for Museums. Restitution took place in Phnom Penh on April 26th, 2002.
  
 
   

Updated: 6 June 2005