News Outlets Feature ASEAN Conference Organized by Cambodia with the Antiquities Coalition
September 20, 2022
Following decades of civil war and unrest in the last century, Cambodia’s wealth of cultural heritage was looted and stolen by bad actors and laundered onto the global art market.
Today, as Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Cambodia is working to retrieve its stolen history, while assisting other ASEAN member states in strengthening their own fight against cultural racketeering.
Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, in cooperation with the Antiquities Coalition, held an international conference on September 5-8th in Siem Reap to achieve this goal. The conference featured government officials and experts in cultural policy, law enforcement, museums, and the art market from around the world and provided an opportunity for greater collaboration and understanding between ASEAN member states.
Tess Davis, Executive Director of the Antiquities Coalition, spoke alongside H.E. Phoeurng Sackona, Cambodia’s Minister of Culture and Fine Arts, and other leaders during the four-day event. In her remarks, Davis noted that Cambodia had recently celebrated some of the largest recoveries of stolen art since World War II.
The conference was covered by numerous sources, including:
The Antiquities Coalition looks forward to sharing takeaways from this event and continuing to work with ASEAN member states to combat looting.