arts
Published 12th February 2021
Controversial art dealer's daughter will return over 100 antiquities to Cambodia
Written by Oscar Holland, CNN
When art dealer Douglas Latchford was charged with wire fraud, smuggling and conspiracy, US prosecutors not only alleged that he had trafficked stolen Cambodian antiquities -- he had "built a career" on it.
The indictment, brought before a New York court in 2019, claimed the British collector was part of an organized looting network that faked records for items it had taken or illicitly excavated from archaeological sites like Angkor Wat. Considered one of the world's foremost authorities on art from the Khmer Empire, which ruled between the 9th and 15th centuries, Latchford had served as "a conduit" for stolen treasures since the 1970s, according to court documents.