Temple Looting in Cambodia: Anatomy of a Statue Trafficking Network

Talk & Discussion - Contested Collections Series

Due to unforeseen institutional issues, we have had to postpone our previously planned talk and workshop on the United Fruit Company Papers to later in the spring (date TBC) – but not to worry, we are still holding an event on looted heritage at the same time this Friday!

Join us for a hybrid event featuring Simon Mackenzie, criminologist and renowned expert on the illicit antiquities trade and Isra Saymour, director of the Looting Lab, exploring the looting and trafficking networks of Cambodian statues. Coffee, tea, snacks, and dessert will be served for in-person attendees.

Event description:

What happens to a Cambodian statue once it’s looted from an ancient temple? To answer this question, Simon Mackenzie’s work maps the villages, forests, chokepoints, and borderlands that constitute statue trafficking networks. Drawing on firsthand accounts from fieldwork in Cambodia and Thailand, he unravels the surprisingly short journey these artifacts take from temple ruins to prestigious international markets. Along the way, he uncovers the involvement of organized crime, the role of forgeries, and the shadowy networks that sustain this illicit trade.

About the speaker: Simon Mackenzie is Professor of Criminology and Head of the School of Social and Cultural Studies at the Victoria University of Wellington. He is a renowned expert on illicit markets and a pioneer in the field of looted antiquities and trafficked cultural heritage.

Register now at uoft.me/temple

*Registration is ONLY REQUIRED for new registrants - if you already registered on the previous event form, you do not need to register again.

Readings

The following text and digital exhibit are recommended to familiarize yourself with the subject matter before the event.

• Mackenzie, Simon, and Tess Davis. 2014. “TEMPLE LOOTING IN CAMBODIA: Anatomy of a Statue Trafficking Network.” British Journal of Criminology 54 (5): 722–40.
Mackenzie and Davis - 2014921.7KB
• Saymour, Isra. “Duryodhana: The Stolen Warrior of Koh Ker.” in Loot & Loss: An Exhibit of Stolen Culture. Digital Exhibit, May 2021.

If you signed up for the previous event, we highly encourage you to attend this one. We promise it will be a fascinating talk! And make sure sign up for our mailing list here so you don’t miss out on future events, including our rescheduled UFC papers talk.