Cambodia’s prime minister welcomes artifacts returned by New York’s Met and other collections

Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s prime minister has led a celebration of the return of dozens of precious centuries-old artifacts from museums and private collectors abroad, and said his government will continue working with others to bring home more such cultural treasures. Hun Manet, who became prime minister last year when he succeeded his long-serving father Hun Sen, said the 70 returned statues displayed at the Peace Palace, the seat of government, symbolically reunited the Cambodian people with their ancestral souls. Many, if not all the pieces, were looted during a long period of civil war and instability in Cambodia, which was ruled by the brutal communist Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s.