Cleveland museum returns rare 10th-century statue to Cambodia

CLEVELAND, May 12 (UPI) -- An ancient statue of a Hindu deity that was looted from a Cambodian temple and spent the last 33 years in a Cleveland museum was returned to its home country.

Cambodian officials welcomed the arrival of the 10th-century Hanuman statue at the Phnom Penh International Airport on Monday after the Cleveland Museum of Art found evidence the likeness of the Hindu monkey god was stolen during the country's civil war some 40 years ago. The museum said it uncovered evidence that the statue's head and body were sold separately in 1968 and 1972 during the Vietnam War and the Cambodian civil war.

"While the government of Cambodia agrees that the museum's acquisition of the work in 1982 was entirely proper, the museum determined that the facts represent a unique set of circumstances that justified offering to return the sculpture to Cambodia," Caroline Guscott of the Cleveland museum said in a written statement.

The sculpture, made of sandstone and about four feet tall, was a favorite of museum goers who imitated its kneeling pose. It has the head of a monkey and a human body and once stood on a base at the Prasat Chen temple in Koh Ker. The temple was built near the Thai border in the year 921.

In February, Cleveland officials learned Cambodian archeologists unearthed fragments that matched the details on the Hanuman statue, including a missing earring from the right ear.

The Hanuman statue is the sixth so-called blood antiquity returned to the Cambodian government. Others include a 10th-century statue of a warrior returned by Sotheby's last year and two stone statues of Kneeling Attendants returned in 2013. They had been on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for nearly 20 years.