heart of cambodia. this temple has been in continuous use for over 900 years. cambodia is one of the poorest countries in asia, but many will spend what little they have to come here. everyone, it s believed, has to make the journey to this complex at least once. but even though angkor wat is central to this population s identity, many of its greatest treasures are gone. so, this is a contrast you will see repeated over and over again in cambodia s most famous temple. here s a carving dating back to the 12th century in perfect
so i want them to see that again. i want them to see the beautiful temple with the god, with the statue. so, i think it is my obligation as a younger generation to bring those gods back home. in cambodia s capital, phnom penh, this dance was created to welcome some beloved statues that were returned last year. these dancers are hoping they ll have good reason to perform again. the statue for here, for this environment, for this temple, for these people. i think it s important that the statues are coming back to our country, our people, because people need to.to pray. they pray.
we re tracking about 100 museums, and so we ve compiled, based on publicly available information, we ve compiled lots of information about cambodian pieces that are out there, so there s a couple of thousands pieces we are tracking. we know that these statues were taken out of the ground, and we know the cambodian government didn t give permission, so we re now asking the museums and private collectors, prove to us that you have a right to have these pieces. we re doing targeted excavations, so the excavations are coming up with remarkable finds, like arms and legs and pedestals, which, in some cases, using modern technology, we know that it s most likely a perfect match. you know, like a foot matches a piece that s in a major museum. that s exactly what happened with these huge warrior statues, the team s biggest success to date. the tops of the statues were once on display in the us, but it was the perfect match
ijust.sometimes ijust don t want to see it, too much to tolerate in the feeling, you know? i just don t want to see something like that. itjust comes.it hurts me a lot. sometimes i heard people talk how they destroyed the temple. ijust feel like, oh, my god, that is so painful to hear. this is very beautiful male statue. he have four arms. sopheap is trying to make things right again. she s part of a cambodian government investigative team that s working to reclaim stolen statues. it s a mammoth task. they re tracing the histories of objects across hundreds of museums and private collections, from sydney to san francisco. leading the team is american lawyer brad gordon.
get a good result. the cambodian authorities believe douglas latchford s personal collection contained more than 100 pieces. so far, five major works and some smaller ones have been returned to cambodia. now, the cambodian government is eager to recover the rest. douglas latchford s daughter, julia, told us in a statement: there were more items on sale at sotheby s back in 1988.