Cambodian Officials Claim Met Statues Were Stolen
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art could lose two Cambodian statues displayed at the doorway of its Southeast Asian galleries, as the Cambodian government claims two pieces were stolen.
The figures, called the "kneeling attendants," have stood at the doorway for nearly 20 years.
Cambodian government officials claim the statues were looted from a jungle temple in the 1970s.
Met officials says benefactors gave the statues to the museum between 1987 and 1992 and there is no information suggesting the works had been stolen.
Museum officials acknowledge they have no records on the statues' origins.
The Met was allowed to accept pieces without detailed records in the 1990s, but since then the museum has adopted a stricter policy.