A team of visiting experts from Cambodia say there are hundreds of 'stolen' artefacts in three of Australia's top museums, as well as in private collections.
The ABC's Foreign Correspondent embedded with the restitution team in Cambodia earlier this year to follow their work identifying, tracing and reclaiming the country's stolen treasures.
Last week the NGA held a special ceremony to hand back three rare bronze Buddhist statues after the restitution team presented it with compelling evidence that they were stolen from Cambodia in 1994. She was able to read an inscription on the metal base with the name of the village the statue came from.
One difficulty with tracing the origin of Khmer antiquities is that the Khmer empire stretched across Cambodia as well as parts of neighbouring Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.Director of the NGA, Dr Nick Mitsevich, told Foreign Correspondent a huge amount of research was needed to ensure the gallery did not return pieces to the wrong country.
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