IF the Angkor temple artifacts seized in Siem Reap had made it to Thailand, they
could perhaps have ended up in retail shops in the Thai capital, perhaps at a River
City boutique.
A well-known shopping center for Southeast Asian antiquities, the complex, contains
three floors full of Cambodian antiquities, according to Julio Jeldres who paid a
visit three weeks ago.
"There are so many of them. I think that River City needs more monitoring from
the Thai police. They must stop people who sell the things," said Julio Jeldres,
the King's official biographer.
In one shop in the complex, he inquired whether the stone carvings were reproductions.
The shopkeeper turned her nose up at him and sniffed: "You are in the wrong
place."
Such artifacts, tastefully displayed in chic galleries, presumably began their journey
in the humble confines of dusty trucks lumbering out of Siem Reap.
Thailand has on ocassion returned Khmer antiquities- usually with great ceremony
- but has not signed any international pact on the return of artifacts.
