The theft of Cambodia’s cultural treasures…hundreds of sacred stone, bronze and gold artifacts from spiritual websites throughout the nation… would possibly simply be the best artwork heist in historical past. It started almost a century in the past when Cambodia was colonized by France… however within the Seventies, 80s and 90s amidst genocide, civil struggle, and political turmoil – the looting turned a world enterprise, a lot of it run by a British man named Douglas Latchford. He saved a few of it for himself, however a lot of what his gang of thieves stole, Latchford then offered to rich non-public collectors and a number of the most necessary museums all over the world. As we first reported in December… Cambodia’s authorities has spent the final 10 years attempting to trace all of it down… and produce their historical past and heritage house.
Angkor Wat, with its towering spires, is the glory of Cambodia. Nearly a thousand years outdated, it is one of many largest and most extraordinary spiritual temples on the planet — sprawling throughout 400 acres. Originally constructed to honor the Hindu god Vishnu, it then turned a Buddhist temple, and stays a spot of worship as we speak. You can wander right here for weeks, misplaced in a labyrinth of historical stone corridors and sacred chambers. But the scars of plunder run deep: looters have hacked off the heads of many statues… they’ve stolen our bodies as nicely… empty pedestals mark the place gods and deities as soon as stood… on some, solely the ft stay.
It’s worse in the remainder of Cambodia’s 4,000 temples. Nearly all have been looted. This one is 100 miles northeast of Angkor Wat… on a distant mountain… referred to as Sandak.
Brad Gordon: This was hit very closely by the looting gangs.
Brad Gordon: They discovered gold, they discovered statues, they discovered many, many issues.
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That’s Brad Gordon, an American lawyer, who’s been working for the Cambodian authorities for 10 years, monitoring down its stolen treasures… he introduced us to Sandak together with his group of investigators, archeologists and artwork students.
Anderson Cooper: This is so cool.
In the temple’s crumbling courtyard, little stays… largely empty pedestals scattered among the many Sralao bushes.
Anderson Cooper: It’s outstanding to me simply how a lot stuff is simply scattered on the bottom.
Brad Gordon: Yes.
Brad Gordon: It’s like a pedestal graveyard.
Anderson Cooper: We’ve all seen in museums these statues with no ft on them, and I do not suppose folks understand the ft had been hacked off. Because to be able to steal them, that is the best manner to– to get them off the pedestal.
Brad Gordon: And we all know when the looters got here to websites like this, the very first thing they took was the heads. That was the best to seize. And then in a while possibly they arrive again and get the torso. But they weren’t very cautious, in order that they left behind items.
For Cambodians, these statues aren’t simply artworks… they’re sacred deities that maintain the souls of their ancestors to whom they ask for steering and pray…
Anderson Cooper: This is unimaginable. Th– these had been all looted.
Phoeurng Sackona: Yes, all looted.
Anderson Cooper: All of those heads, like, reduce off–
Phoeurng Sackona: And the top was reduce off, sure.
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Phoeurng Sackona, Cambodia’s minister of tradition, is answerable for the federal government’s efforts to trace down their stolen gods. We met her in a carefully guarded warehouse not removed from Angkor Wat… the place greater than 6,000 items from temples throughout the nation are saved for safekeeping… each sculpted by an artisan from an historical Khmer Empire… that lasted for greater than 5 centuries and spanned Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
Anderson Cooper: So the statues have a soul? The statues are– are they dwelling?
Phoeurng Sackona: For us, sure.
Phoeurng Sackona: And we imagine that we are able to discuss with them. They will hear. They will see. What would you like? What do you see? What do you do in your life, in your own home, outdoors within the society, additionally? So that–
Anderson Cooper: They’re watching.
Phoeurng Sackona: They’re watching, in all places…
Phoeurng Sackona’s whole household was killed within the genocide that started in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge, a radical communist group took over, forcing hundreds of thousands of Cambodians into labor camps. Some 2 million folks, almost 1 / 4 of the inhabitants, had been slaughtered or starved to loss of life. The Khmer Rouge misplaced energy in 1979, however combating and instability continued for many years, leaving Cambodia’s temples unprotected and susceptible… straightforward targets for unscrupulous antiquities sellers like Douglas Latchford.
Anderson Cooper: Who was Douglas Latchford?
Brad Gordon: I’d say that he was, in some ways, the mastermind behind the best artwork heist in historical past.
Anderson Cooper: The best artwork heist in historical past?
Brad Gordon: Yes, when it comes to scope and multitude of crime websites and the big quantity of statues that had been taken out.
Latchford lived in Thailand… an enigmatic British businessman… he started gathering within the Sixties. He had, it appears, two nice loves: Cambodian antiquities and… Thai bodybuilders… He sponsored Bangkok’s largest bodybuilding competitors, the Latchford Classic.
Anderson Cooper: How would you describe him?
Brad Gordon: He was extraordinarily misleading, I feel in some ways, was ruthless. But he hid that behind this unimaginable façade of allure.
Latchford portrayed himself as a scholar and protector of Cambodia’s tradition, a status he burnished by donating sculptures to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and different prestigious establishments. He additionally revealed three books stuffed with the best examples of Cambodian antiquities… a lot of them, it seems, Latchford had stolen.
Brad Gordon: He was utilizing the books as gross sales catalogs. You know, he was handing them out. He was utilizing them to promote items. And– and he understood a sure psychology of collectors on the market that in the event that they see one thing in a stupendous e book, they suppose it is reliable.
Those books have been a useful information for Brad Gordon and his group, serving to them compile a database of hundreds of lacking artifacts. Many of which they did not know existed till Latchford revealed images of them.
Gordon’s group received their massive break after they met this man in 2012. He was a former Khmer Rouge baby soldier and chief of a gang of looters. His title was Toek Tik.
Brad Gordon: That first assembly, I– I did not actually know who we had met. You know, I knew– I knew that he was necessary. I knew that many individuals had been telling me he was one of the best. And I knew that he was feared.
Anderson Cooper: Why had been folks afraid of him?
Brad Gordon: You know, over time, he had killed many individuals.
It turned out Toek Tik had labored for many years supplying Douglas Latchford with hundreds of treasures… and he was amazed to see them once more in Latchford’s books.
Brad Gordon: He saved opening the e book and going again to the entrance cowl and– and going by means of and tapping and saying, “I do know this one. I do know this one. I do know this one.”
Anderson Cooper: And when he says he knew this one, imply he– he helped loot the– these ones.
Brad Gordon: That’s what we realized later, yeah.
Toek Tik turned a key confidential supply for Gordon’s group. They gave him a code title, Lion, to guard his id. And adopted him to dozens of temples the place he confessed what he’d discovered, and the way he’d stolen it.
Brad Gordon: He would say to us, “I’m gonna switch the whole lot in my head to you. I’m gonna inform you the whole lot. Every secret.”
Anderson Cooper: You felt like his reminiscence was superb. It was correct.
Brad Gordon: Oh it was unbelievable. He remembered the dimensions of the whole lot. Measured towards his physique. He would use his arm to point out us how lengthy a statue was
Anderson Cooper: Why do you suppose he needed to cooperate?
Brad Gordon: You know, he felt tremendously responsible about many issues he had achieved in his life, concerning the killing, concerning the looting. And we supplied him a highway of redemption– a method to do one thing actually good on the finish of his life.
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They recorded tons of of hours of Lion’s testimony… he defined how gangs of looters would spend weeks at distant temples… utilizing shovels, chisels, metallic detectors… even dynamite… to search out and dig out treasures. Dozens of males would hoist heavy stone statues onto oxcarts earlier than transporting them throughout the border… into Thailand… and into the palms of Douglas Latchford. Lion by no means met Latchford, however he’d ship him pictures of artifacts he may select from.
Brad Gordon: We hear about them saying, “Oh we needed to go to this temple and take a photograph. And then sending it again.” You know, my sense is he was procuring. He had an inventory. The looters knew his priorities.
Like these… which got here from a temple complicated referred to as Koh Ker. The statues from there had a particular model that Latchford cherished.
It was, nevertheless, a harmful enterprise. Most looters solely made sufficient to purchase meals for his or her households. And combating between rival gangs was frequent.
Anderson Cooper: People had been killed over these– these antiquities. Do you have a look at these as blood statues?
Brad Gordon: For certain. They’re blood antiquities. Whenever I see a statue I take into consideration, you recognize, who died to– to get this out of the bottom or get it out of a temple and to– to maneuver it right here? So, a lot of this looting was achieved within the shadow of the struggle, shadow of the genocide.
It was this 500-pound sandstone warrior from Koh Ker that appeared in a Sotheby’s public sale catalog in 2011 that put Douglas Latchford on the radar of U.S. legislation enforcement. Its ft had been lacking. And the worth tag? An estimated $2-3 million.
J.P. Labbat: When it appeared within the market– there have been various archaeologists, various individuals who instantly acknowledged the– the supply of the statue as being a selected temple in Cambodia.
Anderson Cooper: It c– got here from Koh Ker?
J.P. Labbat: That’s proper.
Until he retired final September, J.P. Labbat was a particular agent on the cultural property, artwork and antiquities unit with Homeland Security.
J.P. Labbat: A group from the U.S. Attorney’s Office on the Southern District of New York traveled to Cambodia– to examine the location the place the statue had been eliminated.
J.P. Labbat: And so the base– was nonetheless there with it with the ft nonetheless within the floor. And so– they had been capable of match that base and ft to the statue.
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Anderson Cooper: And that was sufficient proof to get the statue pulled off the market?
J.P. Labbat: That’s proper.
After years of authorized wrangling, Sotheby’s lastly agreed to ship this stolen warrior again to Cambodia…
A ceremony was held welcoming it house… and investigators had been capable of hint its unique sale again to Douglas Latchford… who was requested about its repatriation in a German documentary in 2014.
Wolfgang Luck: Is it day for Cambodia, or is it a foul day for the artwork market if these items are coming again?
Douglas Latchford: It’s day for Cambodia, it is a dangerous day for the artwork market.
Law enforcement in New York was closing in on Latchford, however he claimed prosecutors had him all unsuitable.
Douglas Latchford: Their creativeness has gone wild. They’ve seen too many Indiana Jones movies. As far as I do know there isn’t a such factor as a smuggling community and I definitely do not belong to any smuggling community.
Anderson Cooper: The tried sale of this statue in 2011, was {that a} turning level within the unraveling of Douglas Latchford?
J.P. Labbat: I’d say sure. That case put extra of a– focus and a highlight on him. And then efforts were– had been then doubled to, like, actually peel again the onion and look into Latchford’s actions.
The testimony of former looters discovered by Brad Gordon and his group was important for the U.S. legal professional’s case towards Latchford.
Anderson Cooper: How uncommon is it to really have entry to the looters? To individuals who really stole these items 10, 20, 30 years in the past.
J.P. Labbat: I do know of no different case where– the place that is occurred. And– it– it is fairly outstanding to have looters actively aiding a group of investigators to get well artifacts that they’d a firsthand in serving to take away from the nation.
Douglas Latchford was lastly indicted by U.S. authorities in 2019 for smuggling, conspiracy, wire fraud and different prices, however he died earlier than he might be placed on trial. Brad Gordon finally satisfied Latchford’s household to return his private assortment of stolen treasures… Among the primary items to come back house in 2021 was this statue from Koh Ker. Lion, weakened by most cancers, got here to examine it in Cambodia’s National Museum to confirm it was the identical one he’d dug out of the bottom.
Brad Gordon: And then he turned to me and he stated, “It’s the actual statue you recognize it was a outstanding factor to observe. And simply his– his relationship, it– it was dwelling to him.
Anderson Cooper: Do you suppose he was joyful it was again?
Brad Gordon: Thrilled. So joyful, he knew that he had achieved one thing good.
Lion died just a few months later… however the secrets and techniques he revealed proceed to convey statues again to Cambodia’s National Museum… masterpieces that left the nation lengthy earlier than these college kids had been born.
Anderson Cooper: Does the return of those statues, of those Gods, assist some to heal
Phoeurng Sackona: Yes. To get again the soul of the nation.
Anderson Cooper: The soul of the nation.
Phoeurng Sackona: It’s not just for me– however all of my household who was died in the course of the struggle, and for– for all Cambodian folks.
There are nonetheless many extra stolen Cambodian statues and artifacts in museums and personal collections all over the world.
It’s taken a group of Cambodian investigators led by Brad Gordon, an American lawyer, greater than 10 years to doc the theft of hundreds of historical statues and relics by a British collector named Douglas Latchford. As we reported final December, they’ve managed to get a few of what he stole again, however a lot of Cambodia’s best treasures are nonetheless on the market… hidden away within the mansions of millionaires and billionaires… and hiding in plain sight, on show in a number of the most prestigious museums all over the world.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has some of the necessary collections of Cambodian antiquities on the planet. But most of the most interesting items on show right here within the Southeast Asian artwork wing… are stolen. Like this one. And this one… This as nicely – all handed by means of the palms of Douglas Latchford.
Latchford offered this one to the Met within the early Nineties… This one he donated.
Anderson Cooper: Do you suppose folks visiting the Met, know that these had been looted?
Brad Gordon: I feel most individuals stroll by means of the Met, they do not know these are blood antiquities. They do not know what– what the historical past is behind these items. They do not know– the temples they got here from. They do not know the individuals who had been killed to get them right here.
Anderson Cooper: The grime has been dismissed. There’s just a little notice that claims the place it got here from. Should folks imagine what’s on that little notice?
Brad Gordon: No. Absolutely not.
Last yr, we went with Brad Gordon to see the place in Cambodia the Met and different museums’ collections actually did come from.
Anderson Cooper: This is unimaginable.
This seven-story pyramid is greater than 1,000 years outdated… and rises out of the jungle in Koh Ker in northeast Cambodia… It’s one in every of dozens of temples in what was as soon as the capital of an historical Khmer empire.
Anderson Cooper: –looters have been throughout this website for– for many years.
Brad Gordon: Correct.
Anderson Cooper: Douglas Latchford cherished the statuary…
Brad Gordon: In love with the wonder, in love with the artistic–
Anderson Cooper: The statues from right here are–
Anderson Cooper: –have a particular model that he notably cherished?
Brad Gordon: Correct.
And maybe probably the most well-known statues in that particular model that Latchford stole from Koh Ker had been 9 stone warriors as soon as organized collectively in a battle scene. Today, seven have been returned to the National Museum in Phnom Penh, together with this 500-pound sandstone sculpture — it is the one Sotheby’s tried to promote in 2011. They’re again on their unique pedestals, their ankles reunited with their ft, hacked off by looters.
Anderson Cooper: This was at Sotheby’s. This is at Christie’s.
Hab Touch: Norton Simon’s.
Anderson Cooper: Norton Simon Museum–
Hab Touch is the secretary of state in Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture. He is working with Brad Gordon to convey again the 2 Koh Ker statues who’s empty pedestals sit within the museum.
Anderson Cooper: So have you learnt what are alleged to be on–
Hab Touch: We know.
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Anderson Cooper: You know what are alleged to be right here, and you recognize what’s–
Hab Touch: We know–
Anderson Cooper: –supposed to be right here?
Hab Touch: Among 9 sculpture, we have now seven already. Only two lacking.
One of these lacking sculptures was found within the shiny pages of Architectural Digest in 2008… this legendary military commander and a shocking variety of different stolen works… had been all collectively within the Palm Beach mansion of the late billionaire George Lindemann and his spouse Frayda.
Anderson Cooper: The historical treasures of Cambodia had been sitting in the lounge of an extremely rich household in America, in Florida, on show, whereas folks had been having cocktails and–
Brad Gordon: The one factor that I’m at all times struck by is how many individuals witnessed it and have been silent and proceed to be silent as we speak.
The Lindemann’s spent an estimated $20 million constructing the gathering with the assistance of Douglas Latchford… Frayda Lindemann did not reply to our request for an interview.
But in Koh Ker… we confirmed her house to 2 former looters.
Anderson Cooper: What do you consider this home?
It’s a stupendous home, he stated, it appears prefer it belongs to a king.
The former looters identified one other statue within the Lindemann’s lounge they stated they helped steal… this reclining determine of the Hindu God Vishnu. They stated it was dug out of the bottom from this actual spot in late 1995.
Anderson Cooper: You’re 100% certain this was taken from right here by you and others in 1995?
Lida (translated): Yeah, I’m certain.
They additionally recognized various different statues they are saying they stole that seem in books revealed by Douglas Latchford. They say they discovered this copper statue utilizing a metallic detector.
Anderson Cooper: This is Bodhisattva at Ease?
Brad Gordon: Yeah.
They dug it out of the bottom right here in 1990. J.P. Labbat, former particular agent with Homeland Security, discovered images of the statue coated in grime on Douglas Latchford’s pc. Latchford offered it to the Met in 1992. And right here it’s, nonetheless on show.
Anderson Cooper: You had been capable of get entry to a few of Latchford’s– emails?
J.P. Labatt: Yes. And in there– there are d– detailed– tales concerning the method wherein he obtained items, the truth that he was having them reassembled– and repaired, that grime and– and crustaceans had been being– cleaned off of them.
Anderson Cooper: They had been freshly dug out of the bottom?
J.P. Labatt: Fresh. The– these had been recent items that he would describe in his emails that wanted a stage of restoration earlier than he may even try to promote them.
Douglas Latchford was indicted in 2019 however died earlier than he might be placed on trial. Federal prosecutors in New York nevertheless continued tracing his looted artifacts… they imagine not less than 18 of them have landed up on the Met.
Andrea Bayer: I’m very concerned in our work on provenance.
Andrea Bayer is deputy director for Collections and Administration at The Met.
Anderson Cooper: The Met has stated that they’ll return objects primarily based upon rigorous evidentiary assessment. What rigorous evidentiary assessment was achieved earlier than buying these items?
Andrea Bayer: Not sufficient.
Anderson Cooper: It looks like the Met had a do not ask, do not inform coverage. They needed to construct up their assortment. And no person was actually asking questions the place it got here from.
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Andrea Bayer: For folks, many individuals within the artwork world, there was a way of defending nice objects that stood an opportunity of being destroyed. We not really feel about it that manner.
Under strain 10 years in the past, the Met did return two statues referred to as Kneeling Attendants, which had been donated to them by Douglas Latchford.
Anderson Cooper: In 2013, whenever you returned the kneeling attendants, did you examine the opposite gadgets that Douglas Latchford had dropped at this museum?
Andrea Bayer: I do not know the reply to that query. I can solely decide up the story a number of years later, when Doug– Douglas Latchford was indicted in 2019, once we instantly and proactively went to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and supplied our full cooperation.
Anderson Cooper: Well, I can decide up the story really in 2013, as a result of a spokesman for the Met, stated that “No particular effort was gonna be made to verify the provenances of every other Douglas Latchford donated work.” Why would not the Met need to look into the whole lot else that Douglas Latchford had dropped at this museum?
Andrea Bayer: I am unable to speculate about why that did not occur.
Anderson Cooper: But nobody investigated all the opposite gadgets that Douglas Latchford gave?
Andrea Bayer: Not to my information.
The Met shouldn’t be the one main museum with looted Cambodian artifacts… however its assortment is without doubt one of the largest on the planet. Last yr, the museum introduced it will create a analysis group to look at the provenance… or acquisition historical past of all its collections.
Anderson Cooper: It’s taken 10 years since Douglas Latchford was proven to have given stolen property to the Met, for the Met to arrange this provenance group. Why has it taken 10 years?
Andrea Bayer: It was a gradual course of, I’ll grant you that. It was a gradual course of, but– I feel that the truth that we are– absolutely engaged now, absolutely cooperative now is– is our solely reply to this actually. it is a second of reckoning, and we’re able to do what it takes now– to proper regardless of the unsuitable is.
Anderson Cooper: Four years in the past, when Douglas Latchford was indicted by prosecutors, did you arrange a group to verify the provenance of each Latchford work–
Andrea Bayer: Yes. We began, completely we began to dig in proper then and there. It’s not straightforward. I imply the truth that we do not have a lot data has to do with the truth that it’s totally arduous to search out the information–
Anderson Cooper: But there’s sufficient data for federal prosecutors- to cost Douglas Latchford with stealing and looting and trafficking in smuggled gadgets. How far more proof do you want? You haven’t–
Andrea Bayer: We need–
Anderson Cooper: –returned any of the– any Douglas Latchford-related gadgets since he is been indicted, and that was 4 years in the past.
Andrea Bayer: But we’re on the verge of– of– of returning various them.
Anderson Cooper: All of them?
Andrea Bayer: That I am unable to say.
That interview came about in September… two days earlier than we went to air prosecutors introduced the Met would return 13 antiquities that got here by means of Douglas Latchford.
But the Met shouldn’t be returning this statue… which was particularly cited within the indictment of Latchford… or this one which Latchford offered to the Met in 1992.
Cambodia’s Culture Minister referred to as the Met’s announcement a “first step” and says she appears “ahead to the return of many extra of our treasures.”
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Anderson Cooper: Shouldn’t museums have thought twice about shopping for issues that had been popping out of Cambodia in– in the course of the genocide and civil struggle and many years of strife?
J.P. Labatt: And this query that you just elevate is really– the– the crux of– of what we’re wrestling with.
J.P. Labatt: You– acquired items from a recognized smuggler who– used a group of looters that the federal government has interviewed and brought statements from. They have emails which refute the data in your individual provenance on the museum. You have gadgets within the museum which had been named within the indictment of Latchford which can be nonetheless there. And so these items ought to return.
Anderson Cooper: There’s no query.
J.P. Labatt: It’s the appropriate factor to do.
This previous September, the Lindemann household, whose assortment was showcased in Architectural Digest, struck a take care of federal authorities… voluntarily agreeing to return 33 stolen treasures. In an announcement to the New York Times, the Lindemann’s stated: “Having bought this stuff from sellers that we assumed had been respected, we had been saddened to find out how they made their method to the market within the United States.”
Anderson Cooper: Why did the Lindemanns comply with return their assortment to Cambodia?
J.P. Labatt: The items had been soiled. I– I feel they lastly got here round to the– the actual fact that– Latchford was soiled their assortment was– was all looted items. it was apparent. And– and so they– they– determined to give up them.
We received a peek at what was the Lindemann assortment shortly after the deal was achieved. It was sitting in a warehouse in upstate New York. A nation’s dwelling gods and ancestors ready for a experience house.
Brad Gordon: This is sort of a entire wing of a museum.
A wing of a museum that solely the Lindemann’s and their associates had entry to.
Anderson Cooper: If the Lindemann’s hadn’t revealed these in Architectural Digest again in 2008?
Brad Gordon: I feel there is a good likelihood we possibly by no means would have discovered it.
Brad Gordon: We at all times say, the gods need to come house. We really feel just like the gods have spoken as we speak. They need to come house.
As one of many largest crates was being opened… ready eagerly was Muikong Taing and Thyda Long… two members of Brad Gordon’s investigative group. This could be their first have a look at the legendary military commander taken from Koh Ker… they had been probably the primary Cambodians to set eyes on it since Douglas Latchford stole it greater than 50 years in the past.
Thyda Long: He’s right here.
Anderson Cooper: There’s a glance in his eyes and on his face.
Thyda Long: It’s a lot greater than I anticipated it to be.
Anderson Cooper: His presence is extraordinary.
Thyda Long: I didn’t count on to really feel this manner.
Even the commander gave the impression to be smiling.
Then it was time to see the rarest piece within the Lindemann’s assortment. The Cambodian group knelt in reverence because the Hindu god Vishnu was uncrated. Despite all of the fuss, he appeared unperturbed… reclining in a cosmic slumber. When this statue arrives in Cambodia, it will likely be welcomed as some of the necessary ever returned.
Two Cambodian artifacts donated by the Lindemann household to the Met are nonetheless on show. This month, the Cambodian authorities submitted an inventory of 49 antiquities held by the Met they declare are stolen and need again.
Produced by Michael H. Gavshon and Nadim Roberts. Associate producer, Eliza Costas. Broadcast affiliate, Grace Conley. Edited by Patrick Lee.
