Thailand celebrates return of looted statue from Met

BANGKOK

A 900-year-old statue that spent three decades at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York after being smuggled out of Thailand was welcomed back to the kingdom in an official repatriation ceremony in Bangkok on Tuesday.

The 129-centimeter statue of the Hindu god Shiva, dubbed "Golden Boy," was repatriated after being linked to British-Thai art dealer Douglas Latchford, who was charged with trafficking looted relics from Cambodia and Thailand shortly before he died in 2020.

The statue, displayed in the Met from 1988 to 2023, was discovered near the Cambodian border during an archaeological dig at Prasat Ban Yang ruins more than 50 years ago.

It is believed to have been smuggled out of Thailand by Latchford in 1975.

The Met returned a second 43-centimeter bronze sculpture of a kneeling female figure with her hands above her head in a Thai greeting posture, after it was also linked to Latchford.

The return of the items comes as a growing number of museums worldwide discuss steps to repatriate looted artworks.