[ ticking ] what led up to this picture of an israeli mother and her 3-year-old being reunited? an unimaginable 54 days of being held hostage by hamas. >> why did you decide to do the interview?

>> my sister-in-law, carmel, and a bunch of other hostages are still in gaza, and if we can do anything to help that, we will. [ ticking ] for years, "60 minutes" has been investigating the theft of cambodia's cultural heritage. thousands of sacred stone, bronze, and gold artifacts from religious sites across the country, leaving empty pedestals where gods and deities once stood. we found some of them on display at the metropolitan museum of art. how did these looted treasures get here, and will they ever be returned? >> we are on the verge of returning a number of them. >> all of them? >> that i can't say. [ ticking ] >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm sharyn alfonsi. >> i'm jon wertheim. >> i'm cecilia vega. >> i'm scott pelley.

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tragedy after the next since hamas' killing and kidnapping attack of israelis ten weeks ago. on friday, three hostages were accidentally killed by israeli forces even though, we now know, they were waving a white flag. this as the army's pounding of gaza continues unabated. as much as 90% of the population has been displaced, and the death toll keeps rising. about 100 israeli hostages have been released, mostly women and children, but as many as 130 remain in captivity, an open wound in israel where we went this past week and spoke to one of the hostages who was freed after 54 days, 36-year-old yarden roman-gat. she and her husband, alon gat, were abducted on october 7th at a kibbutz near the gaza border. alon took us to the rubble that

was his parents' home in be'eri. >> this is the entrance. >> on october 7th, he, his wife yarden, and their 3-year-old daughter geffen, were visiting his folks when hamas stormed the kibbutz gate, broke into their home, dragged out his mother, and shot her. his sister, carmel, disappeared and the hamas fighters shoved the three of them into a car and took off. >> and they are taking us into gaza. >> you're driving along there in the car? >> yeah. this is the area where they drove the car too, and there's a small army post over there. and this is the place where they stopped the car because there was a tank passing. the terrorists went out of the car to hide in the trees. >> reporter: he and yarden seized the moment. >> and we just jumped off both sides and started running. >> you had geffen? >> i had geffen on me.

i'm not a good runner, and running with a 12 kilograms of my baby, the best odds is that alon would take her. and he's a very good runner. i just passed her on. it was a no-brainer. it was her best chances. so -- >> you passed your child along to alon? >> yeah. >> so i took geffen, and i ran in front. we started to hear the terrorists shooting at us. so we're hearing bullets whistling next to us on my both sides really close by. i'm talking about that distance of me. >> and you're carrying geffen? >> and i'm with geffen. and i found a small crack in the ground. >> like a small ditch? >> yes. and i put geffen down on the ground, and i was on her, lying there with geffen, trying to keep her quiet. >> and all this time, you still

don't know what had happened to your wife. >> it's something that i thought about. should i go with geffen and search for yarden. is yarden -- is she wounded? is she hurt? i thought about all these things, and i said, no. i have one mission now, and this is to save geffen. >> how long were you in the ditch? >> from 11:30 a.m. to around 8:00 p.m. >> nine hours? >> about. and geffen was amazing. she didn't cry about food or water. once she told me, daddy, it's a shame we didn't bring water. >> reporter: hours earlier, yarden, too exhausted to keep running, fell to the ground as her captors closed in. >> i played dead, but holding my breath was next to impossible. so they said, no, she's not dead. there is no blood, so pick her up. and they grabbed my arms and started dragging me on the

ground towards back to the car. i was in pajamas, and my clothes started to swipe off my body. and it was one of -- one of the most frightening moments because my thoughts were, even if they didn't have that intention, now they might have, and i'm half naked, so -- >> you're worried about rape? >> yeah. i was worried to get raped. >> yeah, of course. >> and fortunately enough, they didn't do it. they were -- the goal was get me into gaza. >> reporter: like other hostages, she was driven into gaza through thick crowds celebrating. >> my kidnappers could not help themselves showing me off as a

trophy and showing my face as an object. i was not a person. >> but wait. the windows were up, right? no one could reach -- >> no. they were not up. there were a lot of people around, and as we -- >> yelling and screaming? >> yeah, partying. >> reporter: after similar gauntlets of terror, many other hostages were taken down into the dark, airless tunnels. yarden was never underground. >> and where did they take you? >> eventually we got to a house. i was alone, but i was never alone because i had my guardian -- guardians? >> guards? >> guards. we me 24/7 from the second i got to gaza to the second i left. >> were they men or women or both or -- >> only men. >> only men? >> you cannot object to anything.

it could cost you your life. >> reporter: she was given a hijab that covered most of her body. >> i got a very strong feeling this is my -- that fabric is my only protection that -- i don't know it's effectiveness, but it was the only thing i got. >> you could feel hidden a little bit behind that formless -- >> the word "hidden" has no place. i was watched and seen at all times. i was not hidden, not for a moment. they could do anything to me. >> you were helpless? >> i was helpless. >> did you try to engage them so they would see you as a human? >> i trying to make them care. >> did it work?

do you think they began to want to protect you? >> they did not want to protect me. they wanted to guard their trophy. but i do think i managed to make them care, i don't know, in some levels. and i do think it helped me survive. >> do you think that at some level, you just shut down, you know? just almost as if it was happening to another person? >> no. >> no, you were feeling -- >> it was happening to me. >> yeah. >> reporter: there are details about her captivity that she didn't want to share with us. >> did they feed you? what, you can't talk about that? >> no. >> okay. >> reporter: she lived with persistent anxiety over the fate of alon and geffen. then three weeks in, because she could occasionally overhear news on a radio, she happened to catch one of alon's cousins speaking.

>> and he mentioned, by the way, the fact that i am and carmel, my sister-in-law, were held in gaza. >> you heard your name come up on radio? >> yeah, but it didn't mention alon and geffen. so i could pretty much assume that they were fine. >> reporter: along with relief about her husband and child, she was tormented about carmel because of the almost constant explosions of the israeli bombs leveling neighborhoods all across gaza. >> were you afraid that that was going to kill you? >> yes. it's a very frightening experience to be on a war zone. you cannot ignore it. it's very intense. >> reporter: meanwhile in israel, there was a growing "bring them home now" movement to pressure the government to prioritize the hostages. >> bring them back home now!

>> now! now! now! >> reporter: posters of the hostages are everywhere. this is romi gonen, who was shot and kidnapped. for her mother, meirav, it's october 7th every day. >> they are not fed. they're starved. we know about sexual harassment of the women that left there and of the men also. they're treated with cruelty, the ones that stayed there. and it's important to understand that they don't have time. >> reporter: yarden's family waged their own campaign, setting up a war room to get her and carmel freed, even traveling to washington for help. eventually, all the pressure paid off. last month, israel agreed to cease the bombing and free some palestinian prisoners, and hamas issued a daily list of hostages it would free the next day.

>> every day, mostly at night, in the middle of the night, we would get a phone call of whether we are on or off the list. >> reporter: yarden's brother, gili. >> the way it played out was hamas would announce who's coming out tomorrow. >> that was the twisted reality show that we lived in. yes, that is what happened. >> reporter: once the hostage releases started, the entire country was glued to television as each transfer was covered live. but for five excruciating days, neither yarden nor carmel were on the list. then came day six of the cease-fire. after 54 days, yarden's captors told her "you're getting out." >> they wondered, why aren't i'm happy? they almost demanded it. be happy. be happy already. you're going home. >> you know, some of the hostages were given drugs to

make sure that they looked happy, well-treated. >> i don't want to go there. >> you don't? >> no. >> okay. >> reporter: on the night of her release, her family, the entire war room, gathered around a television. and as she crossed out of gaza, escorted by her captors, yarden was handed over to the red cross and transported to israel. >> i woke up geffen around 2:00 in the morning. i woke her, and i told her "we found mommy. we found mommy, and she's coming back." >> reporter: the reunion, the embrace, took place at a hospital, the first stop for all the released hostages. the last time yarden had seen her daughter was 54 days earlier when she handed her over to alon. >> so it hasn't been that long since she came home. is she still the same person? >> yeah. >> she is?

>> i think she is, yeah. >> are you the same person? >> no. i'm a different person. i'm tearing apart between finding more info about carmel. my mother was murdered, so also i didn't have time to mourn that. i was disconnected emotionally, and i think still i am. >> reporter: alon's old kibbutz is now rows and rows of burned-out houses -- >> this is geffen's swing. >> reporter: -- with painful reminders. the day after yarden was released, everyone thought his sister, carmel, would follow. >> the whole day, i kept myself expecting carmel. i was almost sure she's the one. >> oh, dear. i'm sorry. i'm sorry. >> reporter: the cease-fire deal unraveled. no more hostages have come out

since. the family war room is still operating, now focused on carmel. >> and now you're part of the war room. >> that's right. >> so why did you decide to do the interview? >> my sister-in-law, carmel, and a bunch of other hostages are still in gaza, and it's wrong. and we have to stop it. and if we can do anything to help that, we will. [ ticking ] >> announcer: a mother still waiting for her daughter to return. >> is there any fear that time is running out? >> yes. >> announcer: at 60minutesovertime.com. i'm jayson. i'm living with hiv and i'm on cabenuva. it helps keep me undetectable. for adults who are undetectable, cabenuva is the only complete, long-acting hiv treatment you can get every other month. cabenuva is two injections,

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the theft of cambodia's cultural treasures, thousands of sacred stone, bronze, and gold artifacts from religious sites across the country, might just be the greatest art heist in history. it began nearly a century ago when cambodia was colonized by france. but in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, amidst genocide, civil war, and political turmoil, the looting became a global business, much of it run by a british man named douglas latchford.

he kept some of it for himself, but much of what his gang of thieves stole latchford then sold to wealthy private collectors and some of the most important museums around the world. cambodia's government has spent the last ten years trying to track it all down, and now they want their history and heritage brought home. angkor wat, with its towering spires, is the glory of cambodia. nearly 1,000 years old, it's one of the biggest and most extraordinary religious temples in the world, sprawling across 400 acres. originally built to honor the hindu god vishnu, it then became a buddhist temple and remains a place of worship today. you can wander here for weeks, lost in a labyrinth of corridors and sacred chambers, but the scars of plunder run deep. looters have hacked off the heads of many statues. they've stolen bodies as well. empty pedestals mark where gods and deities once stood.

on some, only the feet remain. it's worse in the rest of cambodia's 4,000 temples. nearly all have been looted. this one is 100 miles northeast of angkor wat on a remote mountain called sandak. >> this was hit heavily by the looting gangs. they found gold. they found statues. they found many, many things. >> reporter: that's brad gordon, an american lawyer who has been working for the cambodian government for ten years, tracking down its stolen treasures. he brought us to sandak with his team of investigators, archaeologists and art scholars. >> this is so cool. >> reporter: in the temple's crumbling courtyard, little remains, mostly empty pedestals scattered among the sralao trees. >> it's remarkable how much stuff is scattered on the ground. >> yes. it's like a pedestal graveyard. >> we've all seen in museums these statues with no feet on

them, and i don't think people realize the feet were hacked off because in order to steal them, that's the easiest way to get them off the pedestal. >> we know when the looters came to sites like this, the first thing they took was the heads. that was the easiest to grab. then later on maybe they come back and get the torso. but they were not very careful, so they left behind pieces. >> reporter: for cambodians, these statues are not just works of art. they are sacred deities that hold the souls of their ancestors to whom they ask for guidance and pray. >> this is incredible. these were all looted? >> yes, all looted. >> all of these heads cut off? >> cut off, yes. >> reporter: phoeurng sackona, cambodia's minister of culture, is in charge of the government's efforts to track down their stolen gods. we met her in a closely guarded warehouse not far from angkor wat, where more than 6,000 pieces from temples across the country are stored for safekeeping, each one sculpted

by an artisan from an ancient khmer empire that lasted for more than five centuries and spanned cambodia, laos, thailand, and vietnam. >> so the statues have a soul? the statues, are they living? >> for us, yes. and we believe that we can talk with them. they will hear. they will see. what do you want? what do you see? what do you do in your life, in your house, outside in the society also? so that -- >> they're watching? >> they're watching everywhere. >> reporter: phoeurng sackona's entire family was killed in the genocide that began in 1975 when the khmer rouge, a radical communist group, took over, forcing millions of cambodians in labor camps. some 2 million people, nearly a quarter of the population, were slaughtered or starved to death. the khmer rouge lost power in 1979, but fighting and instability continued for decades, leaving cambodia's temples unprotected and

vulnerable, easy targets for unscrupulous antiquities dealers like douglas latchford. >> who was douglas latchford? >> i would say that he was in many ways the mastermind behind the greatest art heist in history. >> the greatest art heist in history? >> yes, in terms of scope and multitude of crime sites and the enormous amount of statues that were taken out. >> reporter: latchford lived in thailand, an enigmatic british businessman, he began collecting in the 1960s. he had, it seems, two great loves -- cambodian antiquities and thai body builders. he sponsored bangkok's biggest bodybuilding competition, the latchford classic. >> how would you describe him? >> he was extremely deceptive. i think in many ways he was ruthless. but he hid that behind this incredible facade of charm. >> reporter: latchford portrayed himself as a scholar and

protector of cambodia's culture, a reputation he burnished by donating sculptures to the metropolitan museum of art in new york and other prestigious institutions. he also published three books filled with the finest examples of cambodian antiquities, many of them, it turns out latchford had stolen. >> he was using the books to sell his catalogs. he was handing them out. he was using them to sell pieces, and he understood a certain psychology of collectors out there that if they see something in a beautiful book, they think it's legitimate. >> reporter: those books have been an invaluable guide for brad gordon and his team, helping them compile a database of thousands of missing artifacts, many of which they didn't know existed until latchford published photos of them. gordon's team got their big break when they met this man in 2012. he was a former khmer rouge child soldier and leader of a gang of looters. his name was toek tik. >> that first meeting, i didn't really know who we had met.

i knew that he was important. i knew that many people were telling me he was the best. and i knew that he was feared. >> why were people afraid of him? >> you know, over the years, he had killed many people. >> reporter: it turned out toek tik had worked for decades supplying latchford with thousands of treasures and he was amazed to see them again in latchford's books. >> he kept opening the book and going back to the front cover and going through and tapping and saying, i know this one, i know this one, i know this one. >> when he says he knew this one, it means he helped loot those ones? >> that's what we learned later, yeah. >> reporter: toek tik became a key confidential source for gordon's team. they gave him a code name, lion, to protect his identity and followed him to dozens of temples where he confessed what he'd found and how he'd stolen it. >> he would say to us, i'm going to transfer everything in my head to you.

i'm going to tell you everything, every secret. >> you felt like his memory was very good? it was accurate? >> oh, it was unbelievable. he remembered the size of everything measured against his body. he would use his arm to show us how long a statue was. >> why do you think he wanted to cooperate? >> you know, he felt tremendously guilty about many things he had done in his life, about the killing, about the looting, and we offered him a road to redemption, a way to do something really good at the end of his life. >> reporter: they recorded hundreds of hours of lion's testimony. he explained how gangs of looters would spend weeks at remote temples using shovels, chisels, metal detectors, even dynamite to find and dig out treasures. dozens of men would hoist heavy stone statues onto ox carts before transporting them across the border into thailand and into the hands of douglas latchford. lion never met latchford, but he'd send him photographs of

artifacts he could choose from. >> we heard about saying oh, he had to go to the temple and take a photo and then sending it back. my sense was he was shopping. he had a list. the looters knew his priorities. >> reporter: like these, with came from a complex called koh ker. the statues there had a distinctive style that latchford loved. it was, however, a dangerous business. most looters only made enough to buy food for their families, and fighting between rival gangs was common. >> people were killed over these antiquities. do you look at these as blood statues? >> for sure. they're blood antiquities. whenever i see a statue, i think about who died to get this out of the ground or get it out of a temple and to move it here. so much of this looting was done in the shadow of the war, shadow of the genocide. >> reporter: it was this 500 pound sandstone warrior from koh ker that appeared in a sotheby's

catalog in 2011 that put douglas latchford on the radar of law enforcement. its feet were missing, and the price tag an estimated $2 million to $3 million. >> when it appeared in the market, there were a number of archaeologists, a number of people who immediately recognized that the source of the statue as being a specific temple in cambodia. >> it came from koh ker? >> that's right. >> reporter: until he retired last september, jp labbat was a special agent on the cultural property, art, and antiquities unit with homeland security. >> a team from the u.s. attorney's office at the southern district of new york traveled to cambodia to inspect the site where the statue had been removed. and so the base was still there with the feet still in the ground, and so they were able to match that base and feet to the statue. >> and that was enough evidence to get the statue pulled off the market? >> that's right.

>> reporter: after years of legal wrangling, sotheby's finally agreed to send this stolen warrior back to cambodia. a ceremony was held welcoming it home, and investigators were able to trace its original sale back to douglas latchford, who was asked about its repatriation in a german documentary in 2014. >> is it a good day for cambodia, or is it a bad day for the art market if these things are coming back? >> it's a good day for cambodia. it's a bad day for the art market. >> reporter: law enforcement in new york was closing in on latchford, but he claimed prosecutors had him all wrong. >> their imagination has gone wild. they've seen too many indiana jones films. as far as i know, there is no such thing as a smuggling network, and i certainly don't belong to any smuggling network. >> the attempted sale of this statue in 2011, was that a turning point in the unraveling

of douglas latchford? >> i would say yes. that case put more of a focus and a spotlight on him. and then efforts were then doubled to, like, really peel back the onion and look into latchford's activities. >> reporter: the testimony of former looters found by brad gordon and his team was critical for the u.s. attorney's case against latchford. >> how rare is it to actually have access to the looters, to people who actually stole these things 10, 20, 30 years ago? >> i know of no other case where that's happened, and it's quite remarkable to have looters actively assisting a team of investigators to recover artifacts that they had a firsthand in helping remove from the country. >> reporter: douglas latchford was finally indicted by u.s. authorities in 2019 for smuggling, conspiracy, wire fraud, and other charges. but he died before he could be put on trial. brad gordon eventually convinced latchford's family to return his

personal collection of stolen treasures. among the first pieces to come home in 2021 was this statue from koh ker. lion, weakened by cancer, came to inspect it in cambodia's national museum to verify it was the same one he'd dug out of the ground. >> and then he turned to me, and he said, it's the real statue. you know, it was a remarkable thing to watch, and just his -- his relationship. it -- it was living to him. >> do you think he was happy it was back? >> thrilled. so happy. he knew that he had done something good. >> reporter: lion died a few months later, but the secrets he revealed continue to bring statues back to cambodia's national museum. masterpieces that left the country long before these schoolchildren were born. >> does the return of these statues, these gods, help some to heal?

>> yes, to get back the soul of the nation. >> the soul of the nation? >> it's not only for me but all of my family who was died during the war, and for all cambodian people. >> reporter: there are still many more stolen cambodian statues and artifacts in museums and private collections around the world. when we return, cambodia's fight to get those looted relics back. [ ticking ]

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[ ticking ] it's taken a team of cambodian investigators led by brad gordon, an american lawyer, more than ten years to document the theft of thousands of ancient statues and relics by a british collector named douglas latchford. they've managed to get some of what he stole back, but many of cambodia's greatest treasures are still out there, hidden away in the mansions of millionaires and billionaires and hiding in plain sight on display in some of the most prestigious museums around the world. the metropolitan museum of art in new york has one of the most important collections of cambodian antiquities in the

world. but many of the finest pieces on display here in the southeast asian art wing are stolen, like this one and this one. this as well. all passed through the hands of douglas latchford. latchford sold this one to the met in the early 1990s. this one he donated. >> do you think people visiting the met know that these were looted? >> i think most people who walk through the met, they have no idea those are blood antiquities. they have no idea what the history is behind them. they don't know the people who were killed to get them here. >> the dirt has been brushed off. there's a little note that says where it came from. should people believe what's on that little note? >> no, absolutely not. >> reporter: last march we went with brad gordon to see where in cambodia the met and other museums' collections really did come from. >> this is incredible. >> reporter: this seven-story pyramid is more than 1,000 years old and rises out of the jungle in koh ker in northeast

cambodia. it's one of dozens of temples in what was once the capital of an ancient khmer empire. >> looters have been all over this site for decades. >> correct. >> douglas latchford loved the statuary. >> he loved the beauty, the artistic. >> the statues have a distinctive style that he particularly loved. >> correct. >> reporter: and perhaps the most famous statues in that distinctive style that latchford stole from koh ker were nine stone warriors, once arranged together in a battle scene. today seven have been returned to the national museum in phnom penh, including this 500-pound sandstone sculpture. it's the one sotheby's tried to sell in 2011. they're back on their original pedestals, their ankles reunited with their feet hacked off by looters. >> this was at sotheby's. this was at christie's. >> norton simon. >> reporter: hab touch is the secretary of state in cambodia's ministry of culture. he's working with brad gordon to

bring back the two koh ker statues whose empty pedestals sit in the museum. >> so do you know what are supposed to be on -- >> we know. >> you know what are supposed to be here, and you know what's -- >> we know. >> -- supposed to be here. >> among nine sculptures, we have seven already. only two missing. >> reporter: one of those missing sculptures was discovered in the glossy pages of "architectural digest" in 2008. this mythical army commander and a stunning number of other stolen works were all together in the palm beach mansion of the late billionaire george lindemann and his wife, frayda. >> the ancient treasures of cambodia were sitting in the living room of an incredibly wealthy family in america, in florida, on display while people were having cocktails. >> the one thing that i'm always struck by is how many people witnessed it and have been silent and continue to be silent today. >> reporter: the lindemanns spent an estimated $20 million building the collection with the help of douglas latchford. frayda lindemann didn't respond to our request for an interview.

but in koh ker, we showed her home to two former looters. >> what do you think of this house? "it's a beautiful house," he said. "it looks like it belongs to a king." the former looters pointed out another statue in the lindemanns' living room they said they helped steal. this reclining figure of the hindu god vishnu. they said it was dug out of the ground from this exact spot in late 1995. >> you're 100% sure this was taken from here by you and others in 1995. >> translator: yeah, i'm sure. >> reporter: they also identified a number of other statues they say they stole that appear in books published by douglas latchford. they say they found this copper statue using a metal detector. >> this is bodhisattva at ease? >> yeah. >> reporter: they dug it out of the ground here in 1990. jp labbat, former special agent with homeland security, found photos of the statue covered in dirt on douglas latchford's computer.

latchford sold it to the met in 1992, and here it is still on display. >> you were able to get access to some of latchford's emails? >> yes. and in there, there are detailed stories about the manner in which he obtained pieces, the fact that he was having them reassembled and repaired, that dird and crustaceans were being cleaned off of them. >> they were freshly dug out of the ground. >> these were fresh pieces that he would describe in his emails that needed a level of restoration before he could even attempt to sell them. >> reporter: douglas latchford was indicted in 2019 but died before he could be put on trial. federal prosecutors in new york, however, continue tracing his looted artifacts. they believe at least 18 of them have landed up at the met. >> i am very involved in our work on provenance. >> reporter: andrea bayer is deputy director for collections and administration at the met. >> the met has said they will

return objects based on rigorous evidentiary review. what rigorous evidentiary review was done before acquiring these pieces? >> not enough. >> it seems like the met had a don't ask/don't tell policy. they wanted to build up their collection, and nobody was really asking questions where it came from. >> for people, many people in the art world, there was a sense of protecting great objects that stood a chance of being destroyed. we no longer feel about it that way. >> reporter: under pressure ten years ago, the met did return two statues called kneeling attendants, which had been donated to them by douglas latchford. >> in 2013, when you returned the kneeling attendants, did you investigate the other items that douglas latchford had brought to this museum? >> i don't know the answer to that question. i can only pick up the story several years later when douglas latchford was indicted in 2019, when we immediately and proactively went to the u.s.

attorney's office and offered our full cooperation. >> well, i can pick up the story actually in 2013 because a spokesman for the met said that no special effort was going to be made to check the provenances of any other douglas latchford donated work. why wouldn't the met want to look into everything else that douglas latchford had brought to this museum? >> i can't speculate about why that didn't happen. >> but no one investigated all the other items that douglas latchford gave? >> not to my knowledge. >> reporter: the met is not the only major museum with looted cambodian artifacts, but its collection is one of the largest in the world. in may, the museum announced it would create a research team to examine the provenance, or acquisition history, of all its collections. >> it's taken ten years since douglas latchford was shown to have given stolen property to the met, for the met to set up this provenance team.

why has it taken ten years? >> it was a slow process. i'll grant you that. it was a slow process. but i think that the fact that we are fully engaged now, fully cooperative now, is our only answer to this really. it's a moment of reckoning, and we're ready to do what it takes now to right whatever the wrong is. >> four years ago, when douglas latchford was indicted by prosecutors, did you set up a team to check the provenance of every latchford work? >> yes. we started -- absolutely. we started to dig in right then and there. it's not easy. i mean the fact that we don't have much information has to do with the fact that it's very hard to find the information. >> but there's enough information for federal prosecutors to charge douglas latchford with stealing and looting and trafficking in smuggled items. how much more evidence do you need? you haven't returned any douglas latchford-related items since he's been indicted, and that was four years ago. >> but we are on the verge of returning a number of them. >> all of them?

>> that i can't say. >> reporter: that interview took place in september. two days ago, federal prosecutors announced the met would return 13 antiquities that came through douglas latchford. but the met is not returning this statue, which was specifically cited in the indictment of latchford, or this one, which latchford sold to the met in 1992. cambodia's culture minister called the met's announcement a first step and says she looks forward to the return of many more of our treasures. >> shouldn't museums have thought twice about buying things that were coming out of cambodia during the genocide and civil war and decades of strife? >> and this question that you raise is really the crux of what we're wrestling with. you've acquired pieces from a known smuggler who used a team of looters that the government has interviewed and taken

statements from. they have emails which refute the information in your own provenance at the museum. you have items in the museum which were named in the indictment of latchford that are still there. and so these pieces should go back. >> there's no question. >> it's the right thing to do. >> reporter: this past september, the lindemann family, whose collection was showcased in architectural digest, struck a deal with federal authorities, voluntarily agreeing to return 33 stolen treasures. in a statement to "the new york times," the lindemanns said, having purchased these items from dealers that we assumed were reputable, we were saddened to learn how they made their way to the market in the united states. >> why did the lindemanns agree to return their collection to cambodia? >> the pieces were dirty. i think they finally came around to the fact that latchford was dirty, that their collection was all looted pieces. it was obvious, so they decided to surrender them. >> reporter: we got a peek at what was the lindemanns'

collection shortly after the deal was done. it was sitting in a warehouse in upstate new york, a nation's living gods and ancestors waiting for a ride home. >> this is like a whole wing of a museum. >> reporter: a wing of a museum that only the lindemanns and their friends had access to. >> if the lindemanns hadn't published these in "architectural digest" back in 2008 -- >> i think there's a good chance we maybe never would have found it. we always say the gods want to come home. we feel like the gods have spoken today. they want to come home. >> reporter: as one of the biggest crates was being opened, waiting eagerly was muikong taing and thyda long, two members of brad gordon's investigative team. this would be their first look at the mythical army commander taken from koh ker. they were likely the first cambodians to set eyes on it since douglas latchford stole it more than 50 years ago. >> he's here! >> there's a look in his eyes and on his face.

>> it's much bigger than i expected it to be. >> its presence is extraordinary. >> i did not expect to feel this way. >> reporter: even the commander seemed to be smiling. then it was time to see the rarest piece in the lindemanns' collection. the cambodian team knelt in reference as the hindu god vishnu was uncrated. despite all the fuss, he appeared unperturbed, reclining in a cosmic slumber. when this statue arrives in cambodia, it will be welcomed as one of the most important ever returned. [ ticking ] cbs sports hq. i'm james brown with the scores from the nfl today. baker's perfect passing puts the perplexed packers in a pickle. the good times roll right over tommy devito.

it's time to toss the throwbacks as the texans topple the titans. tyreek took the day off and apparently so did the jets. let's see if flacco actually has ice in his veins. for 24/7 news and highlights, go to cbssportshq.com. -what even is this? -don't touch my things. gross. janice, when you bundle your home or renters with your auto, progressive provides 24/7 protection for almost everything you own. -but do you really need... -my weighted hoop? it's for my snatched waist. that's my dog chaise lounger. foot treadmill. that's my tuesday chalice. purse that says purse. hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber. i can't live without oxygen. solid gold coffee machine. -lake making kit. -really? -can progressive cover that too? -yes, but -- -hi it's janice. i'll take 5. is my voice on tv right now? harry and david is small batch, gourmet, and

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♪honey baked ham and potatoes au gratin♪ ♪tasty glazed turkeys that won't be forgotten♪ ♪their warm mac and cheese has us feasting like kings♪ ♪these are a few of my favorite things♪ every bite is a celebration with the honey baked ham company [ ticking ] >> announcer: the last minute of "60 minutes" is sponsored by united health care. there for what matters. once again, this week "the last minute of 60 minutes" isn't really the last minute of the broadcast. stick around after the break on this extended edition as bill whitaker heads for morocco to explore a musical tradition that is at once exotic and ever-so-slightly familiar. ♪ >> the mother of all basses, the

gimbri is made from wood, camel skin, and strung with goat gut. >> i'm cecilia vega. we'll be off to the gnawa music festival after this. only unitedhealthcare medicare advantage plans come with the ucard — one simple member card that opens doors for what matters. what if we need to see a doctor away from home? we got you — with medicare advantage's largest national provider netwk. only from unitedhealthcare.

most people have never heard of gnawa. originally you weren't supposed to. for centuries, the music was only played in secret ceremonies by enslaved black africans brought to morocco. gnawa, an indigenous word for black people, is music born of the suffering of slavery. for many african americans, those rhythms are familiar.

what we know as the american blues evolved from this swirl of ancient african and islamic rituals. centuries later, gnawa is exploding in popularity. today hundreds of thousands of music fans make the trek to the ground zero of gnawa music, the annual festival in essaouira on morocco's atlantic coast. 480 musicians, 16 countries, 50 concerts. how could we say no? ♪ as the sun set over the moroccan town of essaouira, the huge crowd grew more impatient. they'd been waiting all day for maalem hamid el kasri, a 21st century gnawa superstar whose playlist dates from the 11th century. el kasri's backup singers came on first, wearing the same ornate silk robes and tasseled

fezzes the gnawans have worn for hundreds of years. finally, the maalem, or master musician, appeared and strapped on his gimbri. the mother of all basses, the gimbri is made from wood, camel skin, and strung with goat gut. el kasri started slowly. one of morocco's top maalems, hamid el kasri helped make gnawa a contemporary force. soon he picked up the pace. ♪ the arabic lyrics date from the middle ages, and this crowd knew every word. ♪ the music built to a crescendo.

it was a pyramid of sound driven by the pulsating beat of the krakebs, metal castanets that are played at astonishing speed. this is the musical legacy of enslaved black africans brought to morocco in medieval times. [ cheers and applause ] but the story doesn't end here. it's music that traveled out into the atlantic from the slave ports of africa and helped give rise to the american blues. >> this was a point of departure. it was a place where dramatically black americans have a tie to that we don't really know about. >> reporter: robert wisdom is an actor and a gnawa superfan. you may know him from "the wire" or the hit show "barry," but today he was just bob. we met on essaouira's ramparts, built stone by stone by enslaved

africans in the 1700s. >> you can trace the blues to here? >> you can trace the blues. you can trace the blues to the black cultures from senegal, gambia, mali, who then traveled north into morocco, the black races. when you come here and hear the gnawa, you feel the same thing that we feel with the old-time blues. >> you feel the blues. >> you feel the blues, and that's what gnawa does. >> reporter: it's music that seems to rise from the very stones of this ancient walled city. once a lucrative trading post, slave markets were closed as recently as 1912. today, fishing boats and tourists crowd the old harbor, a postcard of carefree leisure. but for actor bob wisdom, it's the music of gnawa embedded in a painful past that is the town's true spirit.

>> when i come here, there's a living-ness about this music. it is alive as well as it is ancient. and so all of this music is passed on orally, so it's changing all the time. and it's the same with our blues. >> you have called it a portal to the past. >> mm. >> what do you mean by that? >> it gives us a reminder of identity, who we are in the largest sense. you know, the african-ness in our blood. >> reporter: wisdom has seen essaouira's festival grow from a cult following in 1998 to attracting up to 500,000 fans, including western musicians who want a run at the moroccan blues. ♪day parade was a free-wheeling mardi gras as more than 200 gnawa musicians wound their way through the maze of streets.

wisdom greeted old friends as we watched flying footwork and acrobatics that could rival a circus. onstage, you could feel the shared mojo between moroccan and american blues. ♪ we saw stylized line steps that reminded us of motown, deep knee drops that james brown would envy. american percussionist sulaiman hakim told us the similarities didn't end there. he told us the gospel-like call and response so key to gnawa was the same as he'd grown up with in los angeles. >> in blues or funk, there is a call and response. so automatically the first time i heard gnawas, i said, wow, this sounds like music from back home. and the way that they start

turning their heads, it's just like the dances that was done back in the '30s and '40s when we see duke ellington, count basie, and everybody was dancing, how our parents and grandparents were dancing. it's the same thing. >> reporter: a musical globetrotter, sue layman hakim started his career with legendary jazz drummer and composer max roach. but he told us the gnawan maalems could go toe to toe with anyone. what set the music apart was the castanets. >> you only hear this in morocco. they have what we call a six-way feeling to it. as a musician, you're totally wiped away by this pulsation. and it just grabbed me like this. well, you can see i'm a nervous wreck about it. it's just unbelievable. and then -- >> it still does that to you. >> it still does it. when the tempo starts to pick up -- >> we're taking off. >> we're taking off. ♪ >> reporter: the castanets, or krakebs, are the heartbeat of

gnawa. their origin story, passed down through generations, says that the krakebs were forged from the shackles of slaves. it's impossible to know, but many, including hakim, told us they were in awe of the gnawa for using music to defuse a painful past. >> krakebs are the instruments like that, but actually it was this. it was used to keep 'em under control. >> we've seen those horrible pictures of people. >> yeah. if you look at them, there are two pieces like this that you click together. and if you take one of 'em and put it here and here, it's a neck piece. and they converted them, unbelievably, into an instrument. >> they turned something horrible into something beautiful. >> beautiful. doesn't that remind you of something? ♪

>> reporter: hakim told us the early american blues, like this recording from the 1930s, is cut from the same cloth, and the full-throated lyrics of gnawa, songs searching for freedom and hope, would have resonated as much in 11th century morocco as they did on the plantations of the deep south. >> there's always been a way to pass a message and to be able to express itself of all the pain and agony and glory that has happened in the continental united states, and the gnawans are the same way. >> reporter: today, gnawa has inspired moroccan bands who enjoy rock star status that would have astounded their musical ancestors. gnawa has become the top entertainment in morocco, essaouira's annual festival its locus. ♪

morocco has long seduced western musicians. jazz legend randy weston fell under gnawa's spell in the 1960s. ♪ rock and roll giant robert plant was another convert. ♪ so, too, was carlos santana, cat stevens, paul simon, frank zappa, all of whom made the trek to morocco. even madonna paid tribute on her latest album. ♪ but no musician is as celebrated in morocco as jimi hendrix. he rocked up in essaouira in 1969, where the story goes, he jammed up with the gnawa, fell in love with a local beauty, and wrote the hit "castles made of sand." decades later, actor bob wisdom

told us the hendrix legend lives on. >> everybody in town will tell you that they hung out with him. that's not so. i've seen one person who had a picture of jimi. i don't know if it's a real picture, but i'll be honest. >> it's like george washington slept here. >> exactly. >> i knew jimi hendrix. >> i knew jimi. everybody knew jimi. you go in the medina, and it's like, oh, yes, yes. jimi hendrix, my friend, my friend. >> reporter: in fact, hendrix didn't even have a guitar when he showed up. and "castles made of sand" -- sorry, romance fans -- was recorded two years earlier. but why spoil the story? in the medina's winding alleys, it didn't take much to find the spirit of jimi. >> look at that. jimi hendrix. i'll be darned. >> reporter: and if you close your eyes, he's here at his namesake cafe, blaring out from fuzzy speakers that sound like

they too survived the '60s. tall tales from a short stay, but gnawa will do that to you. when we come back, going into trance, the mystical side of gnawa. [ ticking ] [sneeze] dude you coming? ♪ alka-seltzer plus powermax gels cold & flu relief

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[ ticking ] the idea that music could be a potent healing force is now attracting serious scientific study centuries after morocco's gnawa masters turned to music as medicine. gnawa is the music of enslaved black africans who were marched across the sahara to morocco centuries ago. often dubbed the moroccan blues, the original music was sacred, praising saints and spirits. today gnawa is enjoying a secular boom. the gnawa festival, held every june in essaouira, now attracts hundreds of thousands of fans. and as gnawa's popularity grows, so too does the appetite for a taste of the mystic. away from the mosh pit of the main stage, in a quiet courtyard, we'd come to hear one of morocco's best known gnawa masters, or maalems, mokhtar

gania. tracing its ancestors to senegal, the gania family are as close to essaouira royalty as you can get. ♪ with his rich baritone voice, often compared to b.b. king, we watched as the maalem strummed his way through the gnawa liturgy. as always, the castanets drove the beat. the repeated rhythms designed to send people into a trance, a sort of ecstasy, as a way of communicating with the spirits. we watched as one after another, the music moved the unlikeliest of dancers. one swooped like a bird. another head-banged wildly. one musician told us it was like a passport to another dimension. this was just a glimpse of the sacred.

traditional gnawa trance ceremonies are usually private, elaborate dusk-to-dawn rituals. they're called lilas. the maalem acts as a musical medium, calling on the spirits to help cure various ills. >> it's like church. it's a very spiritual music where everyone's really part of the experience. >> reporter: saxophonist jaleel shaw told us he'd never heard of gnawa music before he was invited to the festival. but when he saw people go into trance, it reminded him of worshippers speaking in tongues at the pentecostal church he'd grown up with in philadelphia. >> you see a connection? >> absolutely. my experience with pentecostal church is shouting, or what they call catching the holy ghost. so when i went to church, services would go on and on and on if someone caught the holy ghost, if someone caught the spirit. >> reporter: actor bob wisdom told us he'd gone into trance once, and he'll never forget it. >> the trance is a little scary, you know, because you want to

hold on. you don't want to let go into it. it's the unknown. it's enough that i don't understand the language. but to go into another dimension of possession -- >> it's powerful. >> it's very powerful. >> reporter: wisdom told us the healing rituals of the lilas were like medicine, driven by the hypnotic rhythms of the castanets. >> any american trained musician will say, oh, my god, because the time is so irregular to how we hear, but it builds to hold this spiritual force that they're generating in the lila to call the spirits. that's when you get that little shiver in the ceremony. i guess that's a long way to say, i just like being on the edge of time, you know? >> that's what this feels like to you? >> yeah. it's like being on the edge of time. ♪ >> reporter: so while we were stuck in this dimension, we decided to find out more about

the gimbri and the powerful medicine it seems to unleash in the hands of the right maalem. we went to see mokhtar gania. ♪ even without his red and gold finery, the maalem welcomed us into his house with a traditional prayer. >> this is the gimbri? >> reporter: he told us this is one of the oldest gimbris he made. hand carved from ebony and the skin from a camel's neck. ♪ turns out the gimbri can also be a drum. the maalem's thumb, their secret weapon. gania told us it takes a lifetime of study to become a maalem. but as gnawa has evolved, so, too, have its ancient instruments. the maalem electrified this gimbri, added frets and decoration.

♪ >> that is the blues. >> yeah. >> reporter: and gania's newest creation? a rhinestone-crusted gimbri that belongs to the 21st century. >> this one looks like a rock star's. ♪ >> reporter: maalem gania told us he can wring more notes from this gimbri, but the songs stay the same. ♪ >> all right. some of the songs you sing are centuries old.

why do they still connect with young people today? "that's easy," he told us. "gnawa may be ancient, but it comes straight from the heart. they are very spiritual. music is not just written for the ear. in gnawa music, we start with the spirits." >> so when you hear american artists like louis armstrong or james brown -- >> yeah. >> -- do you hear gnawa in their music? "james brown is gnawa," he told us. "and gnawa is james brown." we headed back to the main stage. we watched a young boy hone his dance steps in a cloud of incense while his gnawan brothers looked on. musician jaleel shaw told us it was like watching history sing and dance across that stage. he said he felt like an ambassador for american music and the debt owed to the enslaved black africans who

first expressed themselves in that music. >> does that history come into play when you're listening to this music? >> absolutely. that -- that history comes into play every time i pick up my instrument. the blues comes from the slave songs. the slave songs comes from -- >> comes from this. >> from this. that's why i play. >> do you make that connection intellectually or -- >> intellectually. spiritually. i feel it. i'm a descendant. >> reporter: that night, as the sun sank into the atlantic, a different spirit surged into the street as the old healing music evolved again. les amazones d'afrique, a trio of divas from mali, joined asma hamzoui, one of the few female maalems in morocco. morocco practices a moderate islam, and it's a sign of

gnawa's resilience that women are now being welcomed into the master ranks. >> without music, there's no life. music is the heartbeat of -- of existence. you cannot point to me one society on this planet that exists without music. >> reporter: musician sulaiman hakim told us every time he played this festival, he discovered something new in the gnawa playbook, and he predicted it would influence a new generation of musicians. >> it's going to open up a whole other world. and then you will see in the next 10 years from now, 20 years, we'll be here, bill. don't worry about it. >> we'll still be here? >> we'll still be here to hear this. it's going to be outrageous. >> and gnawa is steppin' in? >> gnawa is there to stay. ♪

>> reporter: the truth of those words was right in front of us. hoba hoba spirit, morocco's answer to the rolling stones. they arrived onstage well after midnight to a frenzied crowd pogo-ing with abandon. ♪ this was music from the streets, the songs often angry and disaffected. they're a thumb in the eye of authority, and young moroccans love them. the band's leader, reda allali, told us gnawa was their inspiration, the castanets a nod to the past. ♪ "call it african folk," he wrote. "call it gnawa blues. it's just rock and roll sung by a moroccan soul."

♪ [ ticking ] [humming] during your pregnancy you'll take about 6 million breaths. two breaths as you get pfizer's maternal rsv vaccine, abrysvo. the only maternal vaccine given between 32 through 36 weeks of pregnancy to protect babies against rsv from birth through 6 months. 6 millions breaths to meet your baby. know you've helped protect them against rsv. abrysvo is not for everyone and may not protect all babies of vaccinated mothers. don't get abrysvo if you've had a severe allergic reaction to its ingredients. people with a weakened immune system may have a decreased response to vaccination. the most common side effects among pregnant women are headache, pain at the injection site, muscle pain and nausea. in clinical trials with abrysvo, low birth weight and jaundice were reported more frequently than placebo. every breath matters. talk to your obgyn

or other healthcare provider about pfizer's maternal rsv vaccine, abrysvo.

i'm cecilia vega. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." ♪ ♪ (helicopter whirring) announcer: this weekend, dozens of artists and thousands of fans will come together at the hollywood bowl to wish music icon willie nelson a very happy birthday. he turns 90 years old today. happy birthday to me!