Cambodian relics tied to international art scandal are still in the Denver Art Museum

The Denver Art Museum is in possession of six ancient relics from Cambodia and Thailand that are at the center of an international art scandal.

The revelation came as part of the “Pandora Papers,” a series of reports by a coalition of investigative journalists released last week that used a cache of previously secret tax documents to show how some of the world’s richest and most powerful figures stashed assets and shielded their wealth oversees.

One of those figures is Douglas Latchford, a now-deceased art dealer who assembled one of the world’s largest private collections of Cambodian treasures that date back to the Khmer empire more than 1,000 years ago.

Federal prosecutors charged Latchford in 2019 with a host of crimes associated with the pillaging and illegal selling of ancient artifacts — but the Pandora Papers identified at least 27 relics with ties to Latchford still sitting in museums around the world. Six of those objects are in the Denver Art Museum — four from Cambodia and two from Thailand, museum officials confirmed this week. None of the objects are on display.

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