Cambodia: artifacts

Cambodia vests archaeological material in the state. Archaeological objects are state property; export prohibited. The governing law is Law on the Protection of Cultural Heritage (1996); the date Stratum treats as decisive is 1996 (the year of enactment — the exact commencement has not been checked, so the conservative reading is used). An object documented outside Cambodia before that date is sold with the document cited; one documented only later is sold with a warning that Cambodia could regard the export as unlawful, and the ownership history stated in full; one with no provenance at all is not listed.

The United States restricts import of Cambodia archaeological material of 2500 BCE – 1750 CE and ethnological material c. AD 1400–1891 under the CPIA (CBP Dec. 23-11, restricted since 1999). Entry needs the export certificate or proof the object left Cambodia before 1999. Domestic resale of material already lawfully in the US is not restricted by this, but the paper is what a buyer will ask for.

US courts have applied foreign patrimony laws through the National Stolen Property Act (United States v. McClain, 1977; United States v. Schultz, 2003): an object exported after a clear vesting law can be stolen property in the United States even when no US import restriction existed at the time. The date of the earliest document that places an object outside Cambodia is therefore the single most valuable fact on its record.