Phnom Penh, Cambodia – A collection of ancient jewellery stolen from Cambodia has been returned, the country’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts announced Monday.
The ancient jewellery, dating back to the Angkor kingdom that ruled Cambodia from the 9th to 15th centuries, included crowns, necklaces, bracelets, belts, earrings and amulets made of gold and other metals.
Many of these objects have never been seen by the public, the ministry said.
“The repatriation of these national treasures opens a new era of understanding and scholarship about the Angkorian empire and its significance to the world,” Dr Phoeurng Sackona, minister of Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, said in a statement.
The jewels were the latest to be recovered from the estate of British antiquities collector and dealer Douglas Latchford.
An expert in Cambodian and Indian antiquities, Latchford supplied auction houses, art dealers and museums around the world with Cambodian antiquities from the ancient Khmer Empire beginning in the 1970s, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
In November 2019, US federal prosecutors charged Latchford with wire fraud, smuggling and conspiracy in connection with the alleged trafficking of stolen and looted Cambodian antiquities.Latchford is accused of creating forged documents to conceal the illicit origins of the objects, including provenance information, invoices and shipping documents.
Some of the objects were stolen from Cambodia during periods of turmoil and unrest, such as the 1970s under the rule of the Khmer Rouge, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
He died in August 2020, aged 88, and the charges against him were later dropped.
Documents leaked as part of the Pandora Papers revealed how Latchford allegedly used offshore trusts to hide information about his antiquities.
Following his death, Latchford’s daughter Nawapan Kriangsak, who inherited his collection, said she would return all his Cambodian artefacts to the country’s National Museum in Phnom Penh.
“Over the past few years, I have become increasingly convinced that the best way to deal with this legacy is to give all of his Khmer art, regardless of origin, to the people of Cambodia,” she said in a statement to CNN.
The monetary value of Latchford’s collection is estimated at around $50 million, according to the New York Times.In August 2022, the US Attorney’s Office announced the return of 30 looted antiquities to Cambodia, including two 10th century sculptures from the ancient Khmer capital of Koh Ker.
The recent return of this jewellery collection was a group effort spearheaded by Cambodian lawmaker Hun Many, who is also the youngest son of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Se.
He worked with a team from his country’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and US-based legal advisors Bradley J. Gordon and Steven Heimberg.
The handover took place on 17 February in the presence of several of those involved in the effort, including Hun Many and UK representatives from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the London Metropolitan Police’s Art and Antiquities Unit and Arts Council England.
Minister of Culture Sackona encouraged private individuals, museums and other institutions that own Cambodian cultural artefacts to return them to their home country.
“We consider such returns to be a noble act that not only demonstrates important contributions to a nation’s culture, but also contributes to the reconciliation and healing of Cambodians who went through decades of civil war and suffered tremendously from the tragedy of the Khmer Rouge genocide,” she said.
“The ministry will continue to search for its national treasures and bring them back to Cambodia for the benefit of the Cambodian people and the world.”
