Phnom Penh, The US has returned two stolen ancient statues to Cambodia which were stolen decades ago during the civil war, according to a statement on Saturday.
The statues arrived at the Phnom Penh International Airport on Tuesday and representatives of the two countries attended a Buddhist blessing ceremony held on Friday at the National Museum, reports Xinhua news agency.
"Despite the global health emergency and fight against the COVID-19, the Khmer statues have been returned to our homeland and are a great boon to the nation," Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Phoeurng Sackona said.
According to the statement, one for two artefacts is an 11th-century sandstone Khmer statue torso of the Khleang style wearing a Khmer sampot, a traditional garment of Cambodia.
"The antiquity expert determined the statue had a fair market value of $75,000," the statement said.
The other artefact, from the 10th century, is a large grey sandstone Khmer statue torso of an unidentified deity.
Experts estimated the value of this statue at about $120,000.
(IANS)
