PHNOM PENH, Aug 22, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Cambodia on Thursday welcomed the return of a batch of trafficked Buddhist and Hindu statues from collectors and museums in the United States.

In recent years the kingdom has worked closely with US officials to secure the return of hundreds of precious cultural artifacts -- many of them stolen and exported illegally.

The latest return is of 70 Khmer objects including stone statues of a mythical warrior from the Hindu epic Mahabharata and the deities Shiva and Uma, as well as a bronze head.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet presided over a ceremony to welcome the items.

"The artifacts we have reclaimed are invaluable as national cultural heritage for the Cambodian people, the real owners," he said.

Culture and fine arts minister Phoeurng Sackona said a significant portion of Cambodian cultural heritage had been repatriated over the past five years through a series of negotiations, court cases and voluntary returns.

As Cambodia was ravaged by civil wars and a genocide by the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s, thousands of antiques were looted and sold through dealers in Thailand and Hong Kong to wealthy buyers and museums in Europe and the United States.

The late British antiquities trafficker Douglas Latchford was held responsible for much of the trade in Cambodian relics.

He died in 2020 while awaiting trial in the United States for art trafficking, and his family have worked with the authorities to help return many Khmer antiquities.