The “monumental” piece weighs “nearly 300 kg”. Lyon customs on Monday handed over to the Cambodian authorities a bas-relief, made up of five sandstone elements, from a Khmer temple. Probably that of Preah Khan, Kompong Svay or Banteay Chhmar, located in the northwest of Cambodia and in the Angkor region, sites “which suffered a lot from looting in the early 1990s”.
These remains dating from the “12th or 13th century” were seized in an auction room in Lyon in 2020, customs revealed on Tuesday. The investigation determined that this part had been illegally imported into France, smuggled, via Thailand.
Nearly 38,000 cultural property seized in 2022
Initially, it was kept in a deposit at the Musée des Confluences, before being handed over to the Cambodian ambassador to France.
In 2022, as part of the fight against the trafficking of cultural goods, customs made 35 findings which led to the seizure of 37,882 cultural goods.