Ancient Thai religious items make ‘sacred journey home’ decades after being stolen

The 680kg antiquities had been stolen and exported from Thailand about half a century ago then donated to the US city of San Francisco

The ancient sandstone slabs date back to the 9th and 10th centuries and had been exhibited at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum

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A lintel originally from the Nong Hong Sanctuary in Thailand is displayed during a ceremony to return it. Photo: AP

Published: 11:40am, 26 May 2021Updated: 8:37pm, 26 May 2021

Two stolen hand-carved religious artefacts, sandstone lintels dating back to the 9th and 10th centuries, were returned to the Thai government on Tuesday in a ceremony more than 50 years overdue.

The 680kg antiquities had been stolen and exported from Thailand – a violation of Thai law – roughly a half-century ago, authorities said, and donated to the city of San Francisco, authorities said. They had been exhibited at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum.

San Francisco, which owns the museum, agreed to hand over the ancient sandstone slabs following a three-year investigation by the US Department of Homeland Security and a civil lawsuit. The lintels had been structural parts of two religious sanctuaries in northeastern Thailand.

Thai and US officials take part in a ceremony to return two stolen hand-carved sandstone lintels in Los Angeles. Photo: AP

Records showed that the lintels had been obtained by a collector in galleries in London and Paris in the 1960s, according to the civil complaint. The collector, Avery Brundage, was apparently aware that at least one of the lintels had been illegally taken out of Thailand, the complaint states.

Brundage, a former controversial president of the International Olympic Committee who donated the art to establish the museum, died in 1975.