CAMBODIA
Private collector returns hundreds of Khmer artefacts to Cambodia after years of negotiations
20 November 2025, phnom penh
Dr. István Zelnik, a Hungarian national and private collector, has returned to Cambodia an extensive collection of Khmer cultural heritage objects currently in his possession, followings several years of negotiations with the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the Cambodian restitution team headed by Bradley J. Gordon.
These returns represent another victory in Cambodia’s ongoing campaign to reclaim and repatriate its stolen cultural heritage.
According to the Ministry of Culture, Dr. István Zelnik has been collecting art objects from across the Asian region, including Khmer art, for several decades. Among the objects returned to Cambodia under this agreement are 183 pieces of Khmer silk textiles – a collection which significantly increases the National Museum’s existing collection of textiles as well as prehistoric artefacts such as coins, beads, jewellery, and items made of precious metals, bronze, stone and clay. Many of these objects were looted from Cambodia during the decades of civil war. The return also includes several other important collections, such as stone and bronze objects from both the Pre-Angkor and Angkor periods.
While the repatriation of cultural property often involves museums and major institutions, the recovery of objects from private collections represents an equally vital dimension of this ongoing effort.
The returns by Dr. Zelnik should serve as an unequivocal signal to collectors worldwide: now is the time to engage constructively with Cambodia and to take voluntary steps toward returning objects that rightfully belong to the Cambodian people.
Describing the gesture as “an example to follow”, the Ministry urged private collectors around the world holding Cambodian artefacts to collaborate with the Cambodian government – whether through the Ministry of Culture or Cambodian embassies – to facilitate the return of cultural properties to their rightful home.
Details of this return can be found in Khmer Times and Agence Kampuchea Press.
