Thailand to Receive 4 Ancient Artifacts from San Francisco Museum

Thailand's Fine Arts Department has been notified by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations that the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco has completed the deaccessioning of four Thai antiquities, clearing the way for their return to Thailand.

The artifacts—three Bodhisattva statues and one Buddha statue—are part of a larger collection of sculptures originally discovered in Thailand's Buriram province (formerly Prakhon Chai district, now Chaloem Phra Kiat district). These pieces were illegally excavated from the Khao Plai Bat 2 temple and smuggled out of Thailand in 1964.

Since 2017, Thailand's Committee for the Repatriation of Antiquities Abroad has been actively documenting the Prakhon Chai artifacts housed in American museums and working with U.S. authorities to secure their return.

The Fine Arts Department will now work with Homeland Security Investigations, the Royal Thai Consulate-General in Los Angeles, and the Asian Art Museum to finalize the logistics and timeline for bringing these sacred artifacts home to Thailand.