would repatriate the statue, the Norton Simon Museum asserted that it had been "properly acquired … from a reputable art dealer in New York in 1976."

Cambodia is trying to reestablish its cultural heritage following an era of turmoil and horror that lasted from the late 1960s until 1993, when it regained its political autonomy from Vietnam, which had overthrown the genocidal Khmer Rouge in 1979.

Under dictator Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge caused millions of deaths by murder, disease and starvation, while trying to expunge Cambodia's past to secure a totalitarian future.

The Norton Simon, which declined to make museum officials available for an interview, said in its written announcement of the statue's repatriation that it responded to "a unique and compelling request by top officials in Cambodia to helprebuild its `soul' as a nation."

Federal prosecutors in the New York case contended that an organized network of looters had stolen the Norton Simon and Sotheby's statues and a number of companion pieces from a temple at the ancient site of Koh Ker in northern Cambodia in 1972.

The looters were said to have cut off the statues at the ankles to free them from their pedestals, then to have removed their heads for easier transport while smuggling them to Thailand, where they could be sold to antiquities dealers.

The court filings suggested that the Norton Simon's statue had considerably more stature than a "temple wrestler" or guardian. which it's said to be in gallery wall text and descriptions from the museum's online collection catalog.

With artistic hallmarks that include the