![]() This past spring, federal agents in New York prepared to seize a 1,000-year old Cambodian statue from Sotheby’s, on the tip that the massive warrior was pilfered - during Pol Pot’s revolution - from a temple just north of Angkor Wat. ![]() In recent years, the Getty, Metropolitan and British museums have had to surrender more than one ill-gotten trophy. ![]() ![]() From Spain’s evisceration of South American riches, to Britain’s wholesale looting of Asia, to Greece’s demand to have the Elgin Marbles brought home, we have vigorously argued about who owns history. Little wonder that now, 800 years later, the world’s museums are filled with treasures that were stolen outright, hidden for a spell, moved furtively across borders, then sold by adventurers and collectors for fabulous profit. As Genghis Khan once famously put it, “The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see those dear to them bathed in tears, to ride their horses, to clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters.” ![]() How can the theft of cultural treasures be anything new? Since time immemorial, we have taken them freely from the conquered. ![]()
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