U.K. Museums Own Looted Art from Douglas Latchford, Cambodia Says – RisePEI
Cambodia is urging U.Okay. officers to research British establishments for presumably harboring stolen artifacts obtained by Douglas Latchford, the late British vendor who has been accused of looting Cambodian or Khmer artifacts.
Earlier this week, Cambodia despatched the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum, each in London, a listing of objects that Latchford might have looted, in line with a report from the BBC. Cambodia mentioned it believes that the British Museum owns 100 objects from the nation that handed by means of Latchford’s fingers and that the V&A owns 50.
Representatives for the establishments each instructed the BBC that they have been researching the artifacts. The British Museum spokesperson mentioned that it seems to be for any “potential moral or authorized points” when buying works.
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Up till not too long ago, a lot of the give attention to Latchford has been his connections to U.S. museums, a few of which maintain artifacts believed to have handed by means of his fingers.
Latchford, who died in 2020, amassed a big assortment of Cambodian antiquities value hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. Lots of the objects that he owned might have been taken in the course of the mid- to late ’70s, throughout a interval when the Khmer Rouge held energy in Cambodia, leading to bloodshed and turmoil.
“This was a time of battle. The entire world knew it,” Brad Gordon, a lawyer representing the Cambodian Ministry of Tradition, instructed the BBC. “Giant museums just like the British Museum or the V&A, they shouldn’t have accepted these items.”
In 2019, Latchford was indicted in New York for trafficking in antiquities from Southeast Asia that got here with false provenances. Previous to the indictment, he had denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
The Pandora Papers, a leaked trove of paperwork containing hundreds of thousands of filings associated to the enterprise dealings of the ultra-wealthy, revealed that Latchford was in a position to conceal details about the objects he acquired using offshore trusts.
Following Latchford’s loss of life, his daughter, Nawapan Kriangsak, mentioned in 2021 that she would return 125 works from his assortment which were valued at $50 million. They’re anticipated to determine in a brand new museum that might be inbuilt Phnom Penh.
Establishments such because the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork and the Cleveland Museum of Artwork are thought to carry works that Latchford had both helped carry to the U.S. or had himself donated. 4 artifacts have been seized this previous November from the Denver Artwork Museum by U.S. investigators in reference to a bigger inquiry into Latchford’s dealings.
