In one of the most significant repatriations of art to Cambodia from a private collection, the family of billionaire George Lindemann has agreed to turn over 33 ancient statues that officials say include stolen antiquities trafficked to the United States.
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Lindemann’s stockpile of Khmer relics was once hailed as “one of the greatest collections of Southeast Asian art in private hands.” But investigations by ICIJ and others revealed many of the 10th to 12th-century statues — which once adorned his Palm Beach mansion, and later his daughter’s home in San Francisco — were likely looted from Cambodian sacred sites and smuggled to the U.S. by disgraced art collector Douglas Latchford.
For decades, Cambodia has been on a worldwide hunt for relics pillaged from the country during years of tumultuous civil war. Among the objects recovered from the Lindemann family, according to U.S. prosecutors, is a long-sought statue of Dhrishtadyumna stolen from a temple in Koh Ker, an ancient city known for its carved sandstone masterpieces.
