Thailand ready to cede artifacts

Thailand ready to cede artifacts

PHNOM PENH (Reuters): Thailand is ready to return 117 ancient stone carvings looted from a northwest Cambodian temple and seized from art smugglers, but is looking for help with the costs, a Thai official said on Sunday.

The Angkor-era sandstone carvings were hacked off an inner wall of the 12th Banteay Chhmar temple, 350 km northwest of Phnom Penh by Cambodian soldiers and sold across the border to a Thai smuggler.

A Thai embassy official suggested that the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) might help with the return of the artifacts.

The haul, one of the biggest of smuggled Cambodian carvings ever found, was seized in the eastern Thai province of Prachinburi in January. Cambodia has demanded their return.