Social Media Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 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. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billd766 Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post malathione Posted February 20, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 20, 2023 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. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yankyoakum Posted February 20, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 20, 2023 Just glad they were returned, someone had a conscience 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bangon04 Posted February 21, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 21, 2023 (edited) "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" Edited February 21, 2023 by bangon04 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post LesT21 Posted February 21, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 21, 2023 Like the story goes, you know why the pyramids are in Egypt, because they were too big to move to London. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billd766 Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 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. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malathione Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billd766 Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 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. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malathione Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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