This is a terrible thing. These are some of the earliest expressions of Buddhist compassion left to us, and are an irreparable loss to the art of the world. Buddhists take this quite personally, not because of any worship of the statues (Buddhists don't go around worshipping objects), but because so many temples and shrines have been destroyed in the last century, as part of a general attack on Buddhism in that part of the world, and it is connected to the killing of so many people so uselessly.
yours, Peter T.