Looted Gold Jewelry Returns to Cambodia

Now back in Phnom Penh, the 77 items may have been worn by Angkorian royalty.

A stunning trove of never-before-seen gold jewelry has been returned to Cambodia, the country’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts announced in a statement this week.

Experts think the items were worn by Angkorian royals. The collection includes more than 70 artifacts—crowns, necklaces, woven gold belts and intricate body ornaments—from the Khmer Empire, a far-reaching state in Southeast Asia from the 9th to the 15th century.

Cambodian authorities say that tomb raiders likely looted the items from ancient temples and burial grounds between the 1970s and the 2000s, as the country was ravaged by war, genocide and political upheaval, according to the New York Times’ Tom Mashberg.

In full: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/gold-jewelry-cambodia-returned-180981677/

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