By the 1990s, Looter-1 was leading a group of some 450 people who stole artifacts from temples and archaeological sites, according to the complaint. One evening in 1997, Looter-1 and another person found the statue in the antechamber of Prasat Krachap, prosecutors said. They then transported it to a house near the border of Thailand, the complaint added. Last year, the complaint said, Looter-1 showed archaeologists where the statue had been discovered. He donated artifacts and money to the national museum in Phnom Penh and in 2008 was honored with Cambodia’s equivalent of a knighthood.

Source: New York Times July 16, 2021 20:15 UTC