BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s National Museum hosted a welcome-home ceremony Tuesday for two ancient statues that were illegally trafficked from Thailand by a British collector of antiquities and were returned from the collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The objects -- a tall bronze figure called the “Standing Shiva” or the “Golden Boy” and a smaller sculpture called “Kneeling Female” -- are thought to be around 1,000 years old.
This most recent repatriation of artwork comes as many museums in the U.S. and Europe reckon with collections that contain objects looted from Asia, Africa and other places during centuries of colonialism or in times of upheaval.
The Metropolitan Museum had announced last December that it would return more than a dozen artifacts to Thailand and Cambodia after they were linked to the late Douglas Latchford, an art dealer and collector accused of running a huge antiquities trafficking network out of Southeast Asia.
Scheffler back to work at Colonial and Stricker returns to Senior PGA in Michigan
Tourists visit Palace Museum during National Day holiday
Gansu Provincial Museum promotes cultural products featuring ancient bronze horse statue
PHOTOS: At the Pet Gala, fashion goes to the dogs
Study reveals giant store of global soil carbon
Roundup: Chinese FM Expounds on China
Confucius hometown forum calls for dialogue of civilizations
Guardians ruin Francisco Lindor's Cleveland homecoming, trip Mets 3
When Chinese martial arts, Western contemporary dance converge