{"id":47261,"date":"2022-08-09T16:59:26","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T07:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/video\/2022\/aug\/09\/the-souls-of-our-culture-us-return-looted-antiquities-to-cambodia-video"},"modified":"2022-08-09T16:59:26","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T07:59:26","slug":"the-souls-of-our-culture-us-returns-looted-antiquities-to-cambodia-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=47261","title":{"rendered":"‘The souls of our culture’: US returns looted antiquities to Cambodia \u2013 video"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US will return to Cambodia<\/a> 30 looted antiquities, including bronze and stone statues of Buddhist and Hindu deities carved more than 1,000 years ago, US officials have said.<\/p>\n

The south-east Asian country\u2019s archaeological sites \u2013 including Koh Ker, a capital of the ancient Khmer empire \u2013 was hit by widespread looting in civil conflicts between the 1960s and 1990s.<\/p>\n

Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said the items being returned were sold to western buyers by Douglas Latchford, a Bangkok dealer who created fake documents to conceal that the items had been looted and smuggled<\/a><\/p>\n