Collection of Crown Jewelry Repatriated to Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA—According to a BBC News report, 77 looted pieces of jewelry have been returned to Cambodia by the family of a deceased antiquities dealer from London. Cambodia’s culture minister Phoeurng Sackona said that the collection includes crowns, necklaces, bracelets, belts, earrings, and amulets dated to the Angkorian period, from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries A.D. One of the crowns may date to the seventh century. Archaeologist Sonetra Seng has been studying Angkorian jewelry through carvings at Angkor Wat, a temple complex first constructed by the Khmer Empire in the twelfth century. She recognized some of the repatriated pieces. “The jewelry proves what was on the carvings and what was rumored is really true,” she said. “Cambodia was really, really rich in the past.” The repatriated jewelry will go on display in Phnom Penh as researchers work to determine where each piece had been unearthed. To read more about this period in Cambodia's history, go to "Storied Landscape."