{"id":2037830,"date":"2026-07-10T19:21:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T16:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2037830"},"modified":"2026-07-10T19:21:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T16:21:03","slug":"us-returns-two-8th-century-looted-bronze-buddha-statues-to-indonesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2037830","title":{"rendered":"US Returns Two 8th-Century Looted Bronze Buddha Statues to Indonesia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/buddhas.jpg?w=1024&#8243;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"a-content a-content--offset lrv-a-floated-parent lrv-u-font-family-body lrv-u-line-height-normal lrv-u-font-size-18 lrv-u-position-relative\">\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOn Wednesday, the Indonesian Consulate in New York hosted an event celebrating the return of two 8th-century bronze sculptures to Indonesia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAccording to an announcement from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Buddhist sculptures were originally taken from archaeological sites in Republic of Indonesia by an organized looting network and sold to Douglas Latchford, the British dealer who died in Thailand in 2020, a year after he was indicted for trafficking antiquities, particularly from Cambodia. Latchford sold the bronzes, along with dozens of other looted objects, to an unnamed collector between 2003 and \u201907.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAround 2021, this collector relinquished 34 objects (including the bronze Buddhas). \u201cOver the years, Latchford lied to and withheld information from the Collector to conceal that the pieces were stolen,\u201d according to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cWe will continue to partner with [Homeland Security Investigations] to end callous profiteering from stolen artworks of cultural significance,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. \u201cIt is with great pleasure that we send these artworks on the final leg of their journey home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe July 8 ceremony at the Indonesian Consulate also included the return of two preserved human skulls, part a large cache of repatriated antiquities from Italy, Iraq, and Indonesia. The skulls are from the Dayak, a collective term for the more than 200 Indigenous groups native to Borneo, and are collectively valued at approx. $15,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWinanto Adi, Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia, noted that the country\u2019s cooperation with the Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s office \u201creflects the trust, mutual respect, and shared values that have long characterized the friendship\u201d between the two partners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/us-returns-indonesia-looted-bronze-buddha-statues-douglas-latchford-1234791873\/&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/buddhas.jpg?w=1024&#8243;] On Wednesday, the Indonesian Consulate in New York hosted an event celebrating the return of two 8th-century bronze sculptures to Indonesia. According to an announcement from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Buddhist sculptures were originally taken from archaeological sites in Republic of Indonesia by an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2037830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2037830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2037830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2037830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2037830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}