A Cambodian silver pendant repatriated by Latchford in 2009
Credit: TANG CHHIN SOTHY /AFP
The daughter of a controversial British antiquities dealer is set to return over 100 artefacts from her late father’s Khmer Empire collection to Cambodia.
The trove of precious stone and bronze statues and objects dating back to the sixth century AD is estimated to be worth $50 million, reported the Smithsonian Magazine.
Nawapan Kriangsak inherited the astonishing haul from her father Douglas Latchford, a flamboyant antiquities expert who was renowned as one of the leading dealers of Southeast Asian art before he was indicted in 2019 by US prosecutors on charges of trafficking stolen Cambodian treasures.
Latchford, who was sometimes known as “Dynamite Doug,” always strongly denied any wrongdoing, but his death at 88 last August left the case unresolved.
His daughter had reportedly begun talks regarding the repatriation of the collection prior to his death, later issuing a statement to say she was “delighted” that artefacts gathered over decades would be returned to their ancestral home.
Former Cambodian deputy Prime Minister Sok An (L) and art collector Douglas Latchford (R) in 2009
Credit: TANG CHHIN SOTHY /AFP
The Cambodian culture ministry confirmed that the antiquities, including treasures from the former royal cities of Koh Ker and the Angkor area, would be returned gradually and exhibited at the National Museum in the capital, Phnom Penh.
The first items to be delivered would include a stone sculpture of Shiva and Skanda deities from Koh Ker and a bronze ship’s figurehead, reported the Phnom Penh Post.
“The return to Cambodia of these pieces underlines Cambodia’s commitment to the repatriation of its lost cultural properties. Their return is an incredible victory for the Cambodian people and the world,” said Phoeurng Sackona, personally thanking Nawapan Kriangsak for her generosity.
She said she hoped other collectors across the globe might follow suit and return any of Cambodia’s cultural heritage artefacts they may have in their possession.
The Cambodian government has long complained that many statues were stolen during years of civil unrest, war and the genocidal reign of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. A 1996 law on cultural heritage protection forbade the excavation, looting, and improper export of antiquities.
A gold and rock crystal Royal Regalia donated back to Cambodia by Latchford in 2008
Credit: TANG CHHIN SOTHY /AFP
In an email to The Post, Ms Sackona said: “Our message to private collectors, museums and all other nations is that our goal is to be able to tell the story of Cambodia.
“They can take part in the history of Khmer culture by helping us to regain our lost artefacts.”
Latchford , who described himself as an "adventure scholar", was born to British parents in Bombay. He settled in Thailand in the 1950s, where he ran body-building competitions and carved out a reputation as an expert in southeast Asian antiquities.
By the 1970s he was known as perhaps the single most important trader of Cambodian and Burmese artefacts. He liked to describe himself as a rescuer of works of art that might otherwise have been destroyed during Cambodia’s 30-year war, saying most of the items he traded were dug up by farmers working their fields.
US prosecutors alleged he actually built his career on smuggling and illicit sales of items often taken from archaeological sites, creating “false provenances” and “falsified invoices and shipping documents” to cover his tracks.
Many of Cambodia’s archeological sites were subject to extensive looting during the war years, and it is widely believed that many artefacts were laundered into the international art market.
In 2013, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was compelled to return two tenth-century Khmer sandstone sculptures after it was proven they were looted from Koh Ker in the early 1970s.
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