This edited volume is original in its use of a regional frame to discuss the restitution of Southeast Asia's cultural patrimony, from prehistoric artefacts to colonial-era paintings. It is also pragmatic in claiming that restitution brings palpable benefits to the countries that choose to engage with Southeast Asia's heritage ministries. Chapters detail how Western colonial conquest involved stealing cultural heritage – through purchase, gifting, “scientific” (or otherwise, including missionaries and priests) collecting, or war pillaging. Hundreds or thousands of archaeological sites were mined for their artefacts; some were even dynamited. Heritage thefts described in this volume include statuary, royal regalia, nineteenth-century paintings, manuscripts and books, and ethnographic materials. Restitution efforts in the last 75 years are reported, chapters point out myriad problems that such efforts encountered, and best cases are offered for future planning.

Some of the volume's strengths lie in its broad regional coverage (Thailand, Vietnam, and particular attention to Indonesia, Burma, and Cambodia) and its detailed historical documentation using primary archival research. Careful descriptions of these processes, including Indonesian repatriation efforts (Ardiyansyah, van Beurden, Sapardan), the history of grassroots social media-driven SSO repatriation activism in Thailand (Phanomvan), the origins and development of the Vietnamese Cham museum (Duyên), the lurid contexts behind the sale and looting of Khmer antiquities by both its colonial curators and more recent criminal dealers (Abbe, Chea and colleagues), and Myanmar's complicated history of restitution (Clarke, Galloway) make this edited volume dense, interesting, and informative. Its high-resolution illustrations are helpful, and the volume has been edited with great care.

Returning Southeast Asia's Past makes several important points concerning Southeast Asia's cultural heritage for scholars of the region and also for archaeologists and art historians who work globally. The first is that the same colonialist attitudes that initially removed these largely sacred goods also explains their subsequent commoditization as objets d'art and the general resistance from Western institutions and collectors to cultural restitution. Efforts to repatriate these items have always been difficult because Western governments and their heritage professionals have long viewed the gain in diplomatic goodwill as less important than the “loss of such art treasures” (p. 118). The nineteenth-century British official comment regarding the return of the Mandalay regalia to Burma seems too common.

From this colonialist perspective emerge two possibly irresolvable issues that continue to shape discussions of restitution and Southeast Asia's past. The first is whether these objects of cultural patrimony should ever be commodities for sale. The EFEO's institutionalization of antiquities sales from the 1920s to 1940s (Abbe, Duyên) may explain why André Malraux was never punished for looting and attempting to steal Banteay Srei statuary in the 1920s. He was not alone in commoditizing Angkorian antiquities for sale; he just lacked the authority to do so. Reading Melody Rod-ari's suggestion (p. 102) that the Thai government might authorize the sale of some of its antiquities like ceramics certainly struck a dissonant chord in this reader. Excepting some maritime practitioners in and beyond Southeast Asia, most archaeologists agree that the past is not for sale.

Whether one country's cultural heritage may be owned and displayed by another “if appropriately contextualized” (Ardiyansyah, p. 179) may be a second irresolvable issue. Melody Rod-ari's claim that US museums must retain Thai archaeological collections to teach visitors about Southeast Asia's heritage rings hollow, since ample collections remain across the country and museums increasingly diversify their information formats to blend smaller collections with loans and emerging technologies. Sharing collections has been done in both Indonesia (see Sapardan's chapter on a Singasari Prajñāpāramitā and Ardiyansyah's chapter on Raden Saleh's paintings) and Cambodia, and offers a satisfactory solution in some cases. The longstanding museum practice of loans and travelling exhibits, however, also ensures that global audiences can access Southeast Asia's heritage even when museums lack a single object in their collections. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles’ “Angkor: The Lost Empire of Cambodia” is a current example.

What might we learn from this volume's authors and case studies? First is that all Southeast Asian countries need the frame of international law and conventions (including, but not limited to the 1970 Unesco convention) to facilitate cultural restitution efforts. No amount of domestic legislation (and chapters document many examples) stops looting and illicit antiquities trafficking. Convention signatory status triggers a range of international agency support. Collaborations between host countries and Western stakeholders take decades to complete restitutions successfully and may require governmental incentives (like dropping charges in exchange for repatriating materials). Creative solutions are needed to accommodate a range of different acquisition histories, varying scales of collections, and varying types of materials.

The fact that many chapters emphasize restitution in building national identity may surprise non-specialists, but it surprises few Southeast Asian archaeologists. The virulent nationalism now surging across the globe generates geopolitical conflict, and has not left Southeast Asia untouched. Not only did nationalism and repatriation energy converge with anti-US sentiment in late 1980s Thailand (Phanomvan), nationalism and heritage stimulated a cross-border war in recent memory between Thailand and Cambodia: the Preah Vihear controversy. Beyond specific conflicts, some of Southeast Asia's current political situations remain fragile: this can extend to their national borders.

Most of the volume's authors make clear that cultural restitution is a moral imperative, but they also emphasize the fact that repatriation offers a kind of cultural diplomacy. Generating international goodwill between the West and Southeast Asia's countries in an era when Western colonial and post-colonial interventions in the region are under intense scrutiny is tactical. One need not be a justice warrior to support the returning of Southeast Asia's past. Authors also illustrate that stakeholders who matter are not only government actors, but also grassroots activitists, reformed looters, and Cambodian “temple huggers”. Joining forces, using international law, and committing to career-long professional collaboration with Southeast Asian partners are all necessary to return Southeast Asia's past. So is the kind of thoughtful and scholarly research that chapters in this book offer, and we are grateful to the authors and editors who published this volume.