New list aims to combat plunder of Cambodia's rich heritage (Feature)

By Robert Carmichael Mar 2, 2010, 3:04 GMT

Phnom Penh - Road workers uncovered a treasure trove of ancient artefacts 10 years ago at Phum Snay in western Cambodia. Among the finds were jewellery, ceramic pottery and even human bones.

But shortly after news of the find got out, looters moved in. Within a year, Phum Snay had been stripped bare and its archaeological worth destroyed.

Cambodian authorities are struggling to stem the illegal trade in plundered artefacts. A new colour booklet published by archeologists called the Red List aims to teach police and border officials what to look for.

The looting of ancient sites and temples is a long and common problem in Cambodia, which has to balance widespread poverty and inefficient policing with a rich cultural heritage that gave the world the magnificent temple complex at Angkor Wat, the drawing card for 2 million foreign tourists each year.

Experts say numerous temples and sites around the country have been hacked at and dug up in recent years by those looking to make money from unscrupulous buyers of Khmer statues and jewellery.

Dougald O'Reilly is the founder and director of Heritage Watch, an award-winning non-governmental organization set up to preserve Cambodia's heritage in the face of its wholesale destruction.

'The level of looting is almost unprecedented with hectare after hectare being illegally excavated and the resulting artefacts flooding the market,' O'Reilly says. 'Soon there will be little left to document Cambodia's prehistoric past.'

Cambodian authorities released the Red List to try to combat this trade. It is an eight-page glossy booklet listing the types of Khmer artefacts most at risk of being stolen and smuggled out of the country.

The list was produced in collaboration with the International Council of Museums and is the sixth of its kind in the council's efforts to combat the illicit trade in artefacts around the world.

The publication describes the categories of artefacts to look out for and includes their key characteristics as well as illustrated examples. It aims to be easier to use for non-specialists, such as border agents, than previous documents, which contained lengthy lists of specific missing items.

Hab Touch, the outgoing director of the National Museum in Phnom Penh, says the Red List is a useful tool to improve the capacities of front-line officials.

'It is designed especially for police, customs officers and also people who are responsible for protecting cultural heritage to help understand what kinds of Khmer artefacts are now at risk,' he says.

Hab Touch says the list's importance is underscored by the fact that protecting every historical temple and site scattered around Cambodia is practically impossible, which makes educating those who man the borders essential.

Some experts say the problem of looting has worsened since the collapse of the Khmer Rouge in the late 1990s, not least because its downfall allowed for development in areas that were previously off-limits.

Helen Jessup, a scholar and author of books about Cambodia's cultural heritage, says new roads and the clearance of heavily mined parts of the country, for instance, have opened up new areas to plunder. She adds that even some well-known Cambodian sites have suffered in recent years despite being policed.

She says, however, that she is optimistic about the impact of methods such as the Red List, provided the leaflets get to the right people. 'They certainly help customs agents and border inspectors,' she says.

The information should also reach tourists and other potential customers, she adds. 'Then the honest guys would be forewarned,' she says.

Hab Touch says an earlier watch list released in 1993, which focused on 100 specific looted items, resulted in the return of 10 of them.

Those pieces are now on display in the National Museum, and Hab Touch says plans are under way to publish a new book of all known missing items once sufficient documentation has been collated to prove national ownership.

But the recovery of stolen artefacts gives only a limited insight into the extent of the problem. Gauging its scale is an impossible task since the trade is by nature an underground activity.

The illicit trade in archeological artefacts is driven by the high prices commanded by items such as stone and bronze heads, particularly in the context of the country's endemic poverty.

One paper written by a Heritage Watch researcher four years ago analyzed more than 300 Khmer artefacts auctioned at Sotheby's in New York.

It found that the offer prices ranged from 7,500 dollars to almost 30,000 dollars each. Around 80 per cent of the pieces had no known provenance, raising suspicions that they were stolen.

Heritage Watch's O'Reilly says domestic and regional buyers account for most of the illicit demand for Khmer antiquities. It is because many items are small, easy to smuggle and hard to identify as ancient that the Red List may prove so useful, he says.

But the experts agree that a single document cannot counteract the demand for stolen Khmer artefacts. Given Cambodia's poverty, its inability to protect many of its ancient sites and its porous borders, the plunder of its cultural heritage is likely to continue.