LUCKY SEVERSON: There is a stillness about this place that overwhelms everything else, as if the slightest sound will disturb the spirits of those who resided here. These are the temples of Angkor, of the Khmer civilization that flourished in Cambodia from the 9th to the 15th century and then disappeared.
Terressa Davis is with Heritage Watch, a nonprofit group working to protect Cambodia's ancient cultural riches.
TERRESSA DAVIS (Program Coordinator, Heritage Watch): Angkor Wat today is still the world's largest religious monument. I mean, it's huge just in scale alone. The city had estimates of a million people at a time when London was just a small town.
SEVERSON: The people of Angkor were a deeply religious, highly advanced civilization. They built temples like this in only four years. Compare that to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which took almost a hundred. Dougald O'Reilly is the founder of Heritage Watch.
Dr. DOUGALD O'REILLY (Founder and Director, Heritage Watch): Anybody's first reaction is being awestruck. Coming in here today, for example, you can't suppress a smile on your face as you look at the grandeur of the temple, even though it's in ruins now, but you can imagine it in its glory.SEVERSON: For hundreds of years, the temples of Angkor lay cradled by the roots of the mighty banyan trees, forgotten by the civilized world. Today it's designated as a World Heritage Site, and it has become an international tourism mecca. But now it's disappearing again, this time the victim of greed.
William Balken is curator at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.
WILLIAM BALKEN (Curator of Decorative Arts, Utah Museum of Fine Arts): There is a great competition for the best things. There always has been. And the question becomes, what length will a museum go, or a curator or director or collection builder of any kind will go, to obtain that object which will complete their collection?Dr. O'REILLY: What we have here in place is a carving that's still in existence. But beside it, over here, you can see this great, gaping hole where looters had the temerity to come with a truck and remove an 18-meter stretch of wall.
SEVERSON: Those looters were caught. Most aren't. Some simply remove the whole statue. Others take what they can get away with fast. The robbers, it seems, don't understand that these are still sacred temples. As they steal, they also desecrate. Prasanna Weerawardane is with the World Monument Fund.
PRASANNA WEERAWARDANE (Assistant Field Director, World Monument Fund): These are figures of the apsara or celestial dancers, and you can see the heads are gone. So this is a classic example of desecration.
SEVERSON: Dealing in stolen artifacts is no small enterprise. It's a $7 billion-a-year industry.
Ms. DAVIS: The illicit antiquities trade is surpassed only by the illicit arms trade, the illicit drugs trade, and money laundering in scale. So this is a huge international crime.SEVERSON: Behind this fortified fence there are warehouses filled with hundreds of Khmer sculptures sent here for safekeeping. But that hasn't stopped gunmen from shooting their way inside on several occasions. One time they smashed a truck through the fence and drove off with a load of irreplaceable artifacts. That's how brazen the looting has been.
While in Cambodia, we heard the looters were at work several hours' drive west of Angkor Wat. What we found were holes in the ground, recently excavated by villagers who then sold their ancient booty for a pittance.
Dr. O'REILLY: This would date to the Iron Age, about 100 A.D. Five hundred baht to buy this. That's a little over $12.
SEVERSON: The Iron Age bowls they take from the pits are used as flower pots. The villagers will trade a 2,000-year-old piece for a bit of candy.
Dr. O'REILLY: This kind of thing, when you find it in a burial, you're going to have all sorts of information -- what was inside the pot, what were the people buried with. That kind of information we're losing here.
SEVERSON: Most of the prehistoric antiquities looted by villagers end up in local tourist shops, where the price takes a giant leap. This one is a bargain at $5,000.Dr. O'REILLY: These are bells that probably date to the Dom Sum period. There's only eight of these known to archaeological science, so they're very rare.
SEVERSON: But most of the looting in Cambodia is not done by villagers; it's committed by organized crime, many believe, with the help of the Cambodian military. It's not a topic that is discussed openly.
(To Dr. O'Reilly): Is there reason to be afraid?
Dr. O'REILLY: There's very serious reason to be afraid.
Ms. DAVIS: Out of these artifacts, these Khmer artifacts sold by Sotheby's over this period, approximately 80 percent had no provenance whatsoever. Now, in the art history world, "provenance" refers to a piece's ownership history. And if an auction house or a dealer can provide that, the price generally goes up, so if it's not listed it's usually because a) it's not known or b) it's known and somehow incriminating.
SEVERSON: Willam Balken, the curator of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, says reputable museums are far more careful these days. But stolen objects are still finding their way into auction houses and museums.
Dr. O'REILLY: I'm disturbed whenever I see the destruction of beauty -- past creations that human beings have made. It's a tragedy to see them smashed and stolen only for the enrichment of a small, select group of people.
