A vast trove of Cambodia's Angkorian crown jewellery, some dating back to the 7th Century, resurfaced in London last summer, it has been revealed.

The stolen items belonged to British antiquities smuggler Douglas Latchford.

Experts say they have never seen most of the jewellery before and are stunned by its existence.

The collection has been secretly returned to Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, and is due to go on display there in the country's national museum.

Latchford died in 2020 while awaiting trial in the US. His family promised to return his stolen collection to Cambodia after he died, but the authorities did not know what exactly would be handed over or how it would happen.

Brad Gordon, the head of Cambodia's investigative team, became the first representative of the nation to see the jewellery when he visited London last summer. He told the BBC: "I was driven by a representative of the Latchford family to an undisclosed location. In the parking lot was a vehicle with four boxes inside.

I wonder which country stole them in the first place and how many times that they had been stolen since.

 

IIRC Cambodia was ruled by the French for a long time, so I wonder how the jewels got to England, and when.

9 hours ago, billd766 said:

I wonder which country stole them in the first place and how many times that they had been stolen since.

 

IIRC Cambodia was ruled by the French for a long time, so I wonder how the jewels got to England, and when.

No country. Latchford himself was a noted collector and smuggler of Khmer antiquities. He mostly bought the items either in Cambodia or from dealers in Thailand, built a personal collection as well as supplying pieces to museums around the world.

Just glad they were returned, someone had a conscience 

"The stolen items belonged to British antiquities smuggler Douglas Latchford."    -  strange definition of the words "belonged to"

 

I guess they mean "in the possession of"

Like the story goes, you know why the pyramids are in Egypt, because they were too big to move to London.

5 hours ago, bangon04 said:

"The stolen items belonged to British antiquities smuggler Douglas Latchford."    -  strange definition of the words "belonged to"

 

I guess they mean "in the possession of"

 

6 hours ago, malathione said:

No country. Latchford himself was a noted collector and smuggler of Khmer antiquities. He mostly bought the items either in Cambodia or from dealers in Thailand, built a personal collection as well as supplying pieces to museums around the world.

I suppose that he may have bought them legitimately from dealers in Cambodia or from dealers in Thailand, which in theory would make him the owner. That is fairly thin ice though.

 

1 minute ago, billd766 said:

 

I suppose that he may have bought them legitimately from dealers in Cambodia or from dealers in Thailand, which in theory would make him the owner. That is fairly thin ice though.

 

Well, no, he wasn't legitimate. A lot of the items were illegally excavated or collected and smuggled out. Many had fake provenance paperwork. A lot of museums are now in possession of what are, essentially, stolen pieces of artwork because of him.

12 minutes ago, malathione said:

Well, no, he wasn't legitimate. A lot of the items were illegally excavated or collected and smuggled out. Many had fake provenance paperwork. A lot of museums are now in possession of what are, essentially, stolen pieces of artwork because of him.

An interesting link here about him.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Latchford

 

Latchford also invested profitably in Thailand land development and became a Thai citizen in 1968.[4] He was briefly married to a Thai woman and took a Thai name, Pakpong Kriangsak.

 

Two years before Latchford's death, his daughter Nawapan Kriangsak had initiated discussions to return the whole collection, valued at over $50m, to be exhibited at the National Museum of Cambodia as the Latchford Collection.[6][13] The transfer of ownership was completed on 18 September 2020:[14][15] however, progress in returning the collection stalled following the release of the Pandora Papers, which revealed that the family had attempted to avoid paying UK Inheritance Tax.

5 minutes ago, billd766 said:

An interesting link here about him.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Latchford

 

Latchford also invested profitably in Thailand land development and became a Thai citizen in 1968.[4] He was briefly married to a Thai woman and took a Thai name, Pakpong Kriangsak.

 

Two years before Latchford's death, his daughter Nawapan Kriangsak had initiated discussions to return the whole collection, valued at over $50m, to be exhibited at the National Museum of Cambodia as the Latchford Collection.[6][13] The transfer of ownership was completed on 18 September 2020:[14][15] however, progress in returning the collection stalled following the release of the Pandora Papers, which revealed that the family had attempted to avoid paying UK Inheritance Tax.

Interesting, thank you for that. I did not know that.