Officials at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum say it’s going to take a lot longer to return two ancient temple artifacts to Thailand now that they've been sued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Negotiations were already underway to give the items back.
They are two, 1200-pound sandstone temple door decorations; hand carved and about four feet long from the 10th and 11th centuries. One was purchased, the other was a gift from the man whose collection launched the museum in 1966.
The civil complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's office said they were illegally exported and need to be forfeited. Museum Deputy Director Robert Mintz told KCBS Radio they've been in talks for the last three years with the Thai government to give them back after the museum's own research found that key paperwork was missing.
"Nobody had indicated to us that we were being too slow," Mintz said. "We’ve been very transparent about our process and the fact that our process does take time. But, suddenly, this changes our timeline, I guess."
Returning something like this to its rightful owner is far more complicated than taking them off the wall, crating them up and running a package to UPS.
"My belief is that it will actually extend that timeline, because now we will go through the court process before we can return to the negotiation with Thailand and arranging for their return," explained Mintz.
That was going to be as early as this spring. But now, Mintz said the items aren't going anywhere until issues are resolved in court.