US Attorney Seeks Forfeiture of Collection of Southeast Asian Antiquities in District Court

The U.S. is seeking the forfeiture of 35 Cambodian and Southeast Asian antiquities from a private American collection via the filing of a civil complaint in district court seeking to return the artifacts to their country of origin, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said. The antiquities were sold by dealer Douglas Latchford to the current unnamed owner with false statements and fake provenance documents to hide the fact that the items were obtained via looting and imported through falsified customs documents, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The collector voluntarily handed over the antiquities to the authorities.

According to the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the 35 items consist of bronze and sandstone sculptures of Buddhist and Hindu figures from anywhere between the 6th and 19th centuries. Some of the items include bronze sculptures collected around Angkor Wat and a large sandstone sculpture of Ganesha from Koh Ker, an old Khmer empire capital. In 2019, Latchford was indicted and charged with wire fraud conspiracy for his role in the scheme to sell looted Cambodian antiquities. The indictment was dropped following his death.

"This Office continues to trace and recover the many stolen cultural treasures that Douglas Latchford sold and scattered far from their home countries," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said. "Through this action, the United States reaffirms its commitment to redressing the wrongs committed by Latchford and other looters who would exploit and profit from the pain and disruption of war.”

The U.S. Attorney is seeking to forfeit the goods under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing Illicit Import, Export and Transport of Ownership of Cultural Property, of which the U.S. is a party. This convention, which obligates the U.S. to take measures to prevent the illegal import or export of cultural property, was made into U.S. law via the Cultural Property Implementation Act.