Read from BBC:
The country's culture minister says the Victoria & Albert and British Museums both have looted objects.
The museums said they were transparent about items' origins.
The V&A welcomed "constructive dialogue". The British Museum said it would consider requests "carefully and respectfully".
In a letter to her British counterpart Nadine Dorries, Cambodian culture minister, Phoeurng Sackona, says many important cultural treasures were stolen from sacred temples and "wrongfully ended up" in warehouses and institutions - including the two London museums.
The Cambodians - who believe ancient statues hold the souls of their ancestors - have pinpointed that many of the stolen works passed through the hands of a rogue British art dealer, Douglas Latchford, who died in 2020.
The focus on the UK marks the latest phase in the Cambodians' campaign to recover the country's most precious carvings and statues that were pillaged and then sold on to Western museums and private collectors.
The Cambodian Ministry of Culture's chief legal counsel and the head of its investigative team, Brad Gordon, told the BBC that the trade in these items could be considered a war crime. The Cambodian minister's letter reminded the UK that both countries were party to the Hague Convention, which aims to protect cultural property during armed conflicts.
The murderous Khmer Rouge regime held power from 1975 to 1979, when it is thought to have killed more than two million of its own people, and the group controlled large portions of the country until the late 1990s. Much of the looting took place over this three-decade period of civil war and strife.
"This was a time of conflict. The whole world knew it," Brad Gordon says. "Large museums like the British Museum or the V&A, they shouldn't have accepted these pieces."
He adds: "We would say, for the majority of pieces, there is no export licence, there is no permit. So these museums and these individuals are in receipt of stolen property and the stolen property needs to come back."
The country's culture minister says the Victoria & Albert and British Museums both have looted objects.
The museums said they were transparent about items' origins.
The V&A welcomed "constructive dialogue". The British Museum said it would consider requests "carefully and respectfully".
In a letter to her British counterpart Nadine Dorries, Cambodian culture minister, Phoeurng Sackona, says many important cultural treasures were stolen from sacred temples and "wrongfully ended up" in warehouses and institutions - including the two London museums.
The Cambodians - who believe ancient statues hold the souls of their ancestors - have pinpointed that many of the stolen works passed through the hands of a rogue British art dealer, Douglas Latchford, who died in 2020.
The focus on the UK marks the latest phase in the Cambodians' campaign to recover the country's most precious carvings and statues that were pillaged and then sold on to Western museums and private collectors.
The Cambodian Ministry of Culture's chief legal counsel and the head of its investigative team, Brad Gordon, told the BBC that the trade in these items could be considered a war crime. The Cambodian minister's letter reminded the UK that both countries were party to the Hague Convention, which aims to protect cultural property during armed conflicts.
The murderous Khmer Rouge regime held power from 1975 to 1979, when it is thought to have killed more than two million of its own people, and the group controlled large portions of the country until the late 1990s. Much of the looting took place over this three-decade period of civil war and strife.
"This was a time of conflict. The whole world knew it," Brad Gordon says. "Large museums like the British Museum or the V&A, they shouldn't have accepted these pieces."
He adds: "We would say, for the majority of pieces, there is no export licence, there is no permit. So these museums and these individuals are in receipt of stolen property and the stolen property needs to come back."
