12th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Culture and the Arts
Looted Prasat Chen Temple in Cambodia.

Prasat Chen of Koh Ker area in Cambodia is a heavily looted site. During the civil war in Cambodia (1970-1975), this remote temple was abandoned, allow the looter to chop the stone and smuggle valuable stone carving out of the area. Decades later, some of looted statues were found in some museum thousands of miles away in the United States. These recently, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Norton Simone Museum returned looted statues back to Cambodia, displaying at the National Museum in Phnom Penh. These statues had never been to their original sites again.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 05.2014
Date Uploaded: 10.2014
Photo Location: Rural area of Koh Ker, Preah Vihear Province., Cambodia
Camera: NIKON D80
Copyright: © Socheat Nhean