Critical Analysis: Sotheby’s Faces Accusations in Legal Battle
Over Cambodian Khmer Art  The international auction house,
Sotheby’s, continues to thrive even in a down market. Sotheby’s
recently set a record night of sales totaling over $375 million,
which included works by Warhol, Bacon, Rothko, and Pollock.
Despite their successful night, Sotheby’s currently faces a
legal battle with the government of Cambodia over a one
thousand-year-old sandstone Khmer statue, standing five feet
tall and weighing 250 pounds. Sotheby’s removed the Cambodian
statue from the auction catalog in 2011 but it remains in
dispute in the U.S. District Court of New York.  Looters sliced
the feet off the Khmer statue at the ankles to separate it from
the base, which is believed to be from the site of the Koh Ker
complex located near the border of Thailand. Prosecutors have
now accused Sotheby’s and the statue’s owner of covering up the
truth of the provenance. Sotheby’s asserts, however, that there
is no proof its Belgian owner acqui