Bronze Lokeshvara statue from Angkor Thom, 13th century. Courtesy of the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia
On June 15, 2023, the U.S. Department of State’s Cultural Antiquities Task Force (CATF) held a virtual training workshop for law enforcement officials from the United States to enhance their knowledge of cultural property from Southeast Asia and to build capacity to disrupt its trafficking.
The training brought together 150 participants and presenters from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the State Department, the Smithsonian Institution, international partners, and representatives from U.S. universities and museums. Participants heard presentations from government officials and academics on regional and country-specific trafficking patterns in Southeast Asia, as well as case studies from agents who have investigated thefts of cultural property in the region and assisted in repatriations. There was also a lawyers’ roundtable on the cultural heritage laws enacted by various countries in Southeast Asia.
This training was the fifth in a series of cultural property anti-trafficking workshops supported by the CATF and organized by the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum Conservation Institute and Office of International Relations, in collaboration with HSI, CBP, and FBI. The workshops provide law enforcement with knowledge and capabilities to help identify, investigate, and prosecute some of the most-trafficked categories of cultural property. Previous workshops addressed trafficking in coins, manuscripts, fakes and forgeries, and cultural objects from Central Asia and Latin America.
Established by the State Department in 2004 at the direction of Congress, the CATF comprises federal agencies that share a common mission to disrupt cultural property trafficking in the United States and abroad. Since its creation, the CATF has supported more than 100 domestic and international cultural property training programs. CATF is a law enforcement-focused working group of the Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee. Both are managed by the State Department’s Cultural Heritage Center.
