[CPProt.net] Return our 'stolen' crown, Thai thief begs US gallery

[MSN and CPProt list (Ton Cremers)]

Return our 'stolen' crown, Thai thief begs US gallery
By Sebastien Berger in Ayutthaya 
(Filed: 13/03/2005)

A temple raider struggling with 50 years of guilt has admitted looting
priceless Thai treasures in the hope that his confession will secure the
return of a gold crown from an American museum. 

Li Kasemsang, 78, has revealed that he was part of a gang that stripped
300lb of gold crowns, swords, jewellery and statues - some dating back to
the 15th century - from one of the biggest temples in Ayutthaya, Thailand's
ancient capital. 

After the raid in 1957, only 20 per cent of the haul was recovered. The Thai
authorities had no idea that an ornate gold crown which they believe could
have been stolen was in the United States until it emerged last month at an
exhibition in San Francisco. The Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, is
now fighting to get it back, plunging the exhibition into controversy and
putting the crown at the heart of the latest fine art "custody battle". 

The crown, which is owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was listed in a
catalogue for The Kingdom of Siam exhibition as "probably from the crypt of
the main tower of Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya" - the temple emptied by Mr Li
and 20 accomplices. 

The museum paid $18,700 (£9,700) for the crown at a Sotheby's auction in
1982. It had previously been owned by a collector from Pennsylvania, who
bought it from a New York antiquities dealer in 1965.

Its whereabouts between 1957 and then are unknown. "We take issues of
provenance very seriously," said Anne d'Harnoncourt, the director of the
museum. "We would of course be ready to explore any questions about the
history of the object with the appropriate Thai officials."

Ayutthaya was the capital of the kingdom of Siam from 1351 until it was
razed by the Burmese army 400 years later. It was also home to Mr Li, who
made a living selling amulets scavenged from the ruins.

When officials from Thailand's fine arts department started to pore over one
of the city's finest temples, built in 1424, the interest of Mr Li and
fellow "collectors" was piqued. 

"I was poor; I had no job," said Mr Li, one of only two gang members who are
still alive. "Many people did the same things as me."

The temple, built to commemorate a king and two princes, turned out to hold
thousands of golden objects.

With the help of a policeman guarding the site, the gang broke into the
temple and spent three nights digging through the brickwork until they
reached a chamber hidden 30ft underground. 

The contents surpassed their wildest dreams. The gang seized an ornate gold
weapon, later recovered and identified as the Sword of Auspicious Victory,
and a crown. Fifty years later, Mr Li claimed that he felt guilty about the
raid. "I felt bad because those treasures belonged to the king and I don't
want to violate the monarchy," he said. 

"My other friends didn't think like that. They were happy to find a lot of
gold." He said the raiders had been intimidated by the sword. "We saw light
flashing from it. Everyone was scared that this was a weapon of the king."
He began to pull it from its scabbard, but stopped. "I knew it was the kind
of weapon that if you pull it out, it must take blood," he said.

Although many bags of treasure were passed up to Mr Li from the underground
cache, he said that the loot was divided between the gang. He went away with
only small items - amulets and votive tablets - some of which he sold for
about £1,000, enough to build a house. 

The rest, he claimed, was stolen by a relative when he was on the run, and
he does not know how much the other thieves made from their spoils. Eight of
the gang were captured, although none implicated him in the raid. 

The Thai police are powerless to act against Mr Li so long after the raid.
"I ask to apologise," said Mr Li. "I feel sorry until now. If I could go
back to the past I wouldn't do it."

The treasures that were recovered have pride of place in the Chao Sam Phraya
museum in Ayutthaya, about 60 miles north of Bangkok. Subongkot
Thongtongthip, its director, said that there was a growing consensus that
the crown was from the site - a belief bolstered by Mr Li's confession. 

"The Thai people want the crown back but it should be done in a way that
makes everybody happy," she said. 

It is not known how the crown was taken to the United States. Matthew
Weigman, a senior vice-president of Sotheby's in New York, said: "Sotheby's
does not sell stolen or allegedly stolen property. If Sotheby's had been
aware of the theft at the time, the property would not have been offered for
sale."

The Kingdom of Siam exhibition is the culmination of six years' work by
Forrest McGill, the chief curator of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco,
who says he is "personally heartbroken" about the row.

"We don't know that any of the objects were or were not stolen," he said.
"The point is to bring to world attention the artistic and cultural heritage
of the kingdom of Siam."

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/