(*) The Malraux Affair

André Malraux, a young writer, went to Cambodia at the age of 21 with his wife, the writer Clara Goldsmidt. They hoped to rediscover the Khmer temples. He made straight for the exquisite and remote temple of Banteay Srei and cut from its lovely pink sandstone facade one ton of the finest statues and cornices. Arrested in possession of the treasure as he tried to leave the country, he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment, though he never actually went to jail. After his sentence was voided, Malraux edited an anti-colonialist newspaper in Saigon and returned briefly to France. In 1925 he went to Saigon to join the anti-colonial Young Annam League. In 1930 he told his story in the novel “La voie royale” and later became Minister of Culture under the De Gaulle Administration.