A New York judge has denied Sotheby’s motion to dismiss Cambodia’s claim — brought on its behalf by the US government — that a 10th century Khmer statue was looted and should be returned.
District court judge George B. Daniels ruled on Thursday that the government has “sufficiently pled facts regarding Sotheby’s knowledge that the Statue was stolen at the time of import into the United States.” He also found the government had presented sufficient evidence that Douglas Latchford, the British collector who initially sold the statue, “knew the statue had been looted from Koh Ker.”
The ruling, which dismissed several of Sotheby’s key arguments, is not a final ruling but allows the case to proceed. You can find our complete coverage of the case, including past legal filings, here.
Here is Daniels’ 18-page ruling:
