On the Trail of Khmer Antiquities

SIEM REAP, Cambodia — The huge statues at the entrance of the Bayon temple in the Angkor complex here exude an air of strength, in contrast to other statues in the other temples and sites that have arms hacked off, or heads missing.

Bayon was the last state temple to be built in the 13^th century at Angkor Thom, on the banks of the Siem Reap river here in north-west Cambodia. The Bayon is home to 200 huge faces carved on more than 40 towers, among other images.

Against the backdrop of such majestic figures, visitors — both Khmer and foreign — cannot but rue the loss of Cambodia’s valuable cultural heritage when they see destroyed, defaced or missing statues, or huge pieces missing from archways and structures.

Many structures in Cambodia’s rich mix of temples were destroyed or lost during the 1970s and 1980s, when this South-east Asian country was torn by civil war, according to officials of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. Peace gave the opportunity to open Cambodia’s ancient sites to visitors. However, the end to war – the U.N.-overseen election of 1993 followed the Paris Peace Agreement of 1991 – also brought with it the challenge of dealing with the theft of heritage. The opening of borders in the region in subsequent years also facilitated the trafficking of antiquities.

The stealing of treasures such as the heads of guardian spirit statues and other religious items has been happening for a long time, says Prak Sovannara of the heritage department of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts.

For Just a Few Dollars

   While looting at the Angkor complex, a World Heritage site since 1992, has dropped dramatically since a more than 300-member heritage police was assigned to guard it in the late 1990s, it continues at other sacred sites across Cambodia, including pre-Angkorian ones, that do not get as much attention as Angkor.

   Poor people in places like the northern Cambodian provinces of Banteay Meanchay and Oddar Meanchay that I went to, steal glass and stone beads, precious stones and jars, and sell them. People are known to have dug into ancient graves that are at a depth of three to six metres – and some of these graves date back to the 12^th or 13^th centuries, says
Nim Son, deputy director of the heritage department’s administration office at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts.

   Residents of Banteay Ampil district in Oddar Meanchay say that the digging of ancient graves there occurred after several agents from Thmar Pouk district in Banteay Meanchay began telling people in the district to look for artifacts to sell to them.

      Indeed, Yot Ray, police chief of Thmar Pouk district in Banteay Meanchay, says that it is usually agents linked to larger and international syndicates who urge locals, who are often poor, to find ancient treasures and objects to sell to them, often for just a few dollars each.          
    
      “These people are not even aware that they are being cheated by these agents,” he explained. “It’s very difficult to arrest those people because the digging is done deep in the forest,” he said. ”It takes two to three hours to go there, so it’s difficult to track down the offender in time. Often too, those who get caught are just given warnings.”

       According to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Cambodia has 3,350 ancient sites, many of them graves and temples. A World Heritage report, however, states that most of the unidentified ancient sites have been destroyed. The country also does not have a national register of archaeological sites.

   Although the Angkor area is much better protected than other sites, it remains very vulnerable to looters, says Terressa Davis of the non-government group Heritage Watch, based in Phnom Penh. At the same time, she says that while there is no longer much market interest in getting antiquities from the Siem Reap area -- there is, instead, in obtaining heritage items from other areas along the Cambodia-Thailand border.

   “In the next two to three years, there will be nothing left in the prehistoric sites in Banteay Meanchay and Oddar Meanchay. The two provinces share borders with Thailand, which is a gateway of sorts to sell these relics to the international market,” said Dougald O’Reilly, founder and director of Heritage Watch. “If we don’t act soon, a part of Khmer history will be lost forever.”

   At least 20 percent of tourists have unknowingly bought ancient Khmer artifacts, often thinking that they are just ordinary items, according to research done by Heritage Watch.

     Needless to say, the recovery stolen artifacts is not easy, especially for a country with inadequate resources and poor implementation of heritage law. This becomes even more complicated when the items are already out of Cambodia.

   However, officials point to some success stories. Ministry of Culture and Arts provincial department director Hing Tim, along with the police and the military, were able to recover 1,548 artifacts such as burnt clay objects, small, round-mouthed stone jars, diamonds, and others between 2000 and 2002. They were also able to apprehend the looters.

   In 1990, Thai border police stopped big trucks loaded with Khmer artifacts on the Cambodian border to Thailand. Inside the trucks were statues stolen from temples in Banteay Srey in Siem Reap province and Koh Ke in Preah Vihea province. In January 1999, Thai police in Aranyaprathet, just across the border from Cambodia, intercepted two trucks carrying 117 heavy and ancient stone blocks. News reports said the truck drivers confessed that the pieces were part of a dismantled wall from the 12th-century ruin Banteay Chmar, near the Cambodia-Thailand border. In March 2000, Thai authorities returned the artifacts to Cambodia, but the theft spoke not only of how badly looted Banteay Chmar is – but how big the international market for stolen antiquities is.

The International Link

Interpol estimates that the black market in stolen art and antiquities worldwide exceeds 10 billion U.S. dollars annually, making it the world's biggest illicit trade after arms and drugs.

 There are international laws against the trade in antiquities – such as the 1970 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. It aims to prevent the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property and allows signatory countries to recover stolen items. But two countries – Thailand and Singapore – are among those that have not signed the convention. Significantly, they are countries that are often either destination or transit points for stolen Khmer antiquities. ”The reason for this is that these cities have very liberal laws pertaining to the sale and transit of cultural heritage,” according to a petition that Heritage Watch is circulating to convince the two governments to sign up.

   Cambodia was the first to sign another legal instrument against the international trade in stolen artifacts -- the UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects in 1995, which provided that looted artifacts sold in foreign countries be returned to their countries of origin.

      Chuch Phoeung, secretary of state of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, says that looting often takes place at night, in isolated areas. “By the time we learn of the looting, it is already too late. Some dealers wait right at the site and bring the items directly to Thailand, where they are sold.

(These photographs were also published in the French-language 'Cambodge Soir' newspaper and the Khmer-language 'Somne Thmey' based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.)