Religious artifacts returned to Thailand after decades

The 1,500-pound (680-kilogram) antiquities had been stolen and exported from Thailand — a violation of Thai law — roughly a half-century ago, authorities said, and donated to the city of San Francisco. They had been exhibited at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum.

San Francisco, which owns the museum, agreed to hand over the ancient sandstone slabs, which had been structural parts of two religious sanctuaries in northeastern Thailand, following a three-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and a civil lawsuit.

Records showed that the lintels had been obtained by a collector in galleries in London and Paris in the 1960s, according to the civil complaint. The collector, Avery Brundage, was apparently aware that at least one of the lintels had been illegally taken out of Thailand, the complaint states. Brundage, a former controversial president of the International Olympic Committee who donated the art to establish the museum, died in 1975.

The Thai government had been trying to get the museum to return the artifacts since 2016, to no avail. The Los Angeles Times reported the mystery surrounding the lintels, and various attempts to return them to Thailand, in March.