via Khmer Times, 02 December 2019: Cambodia’s Minister of Culture expresses support for the indictment of antiques dealer Douglas Latchford and his alleged role of facilitating the looting and sale of Cambodian antiquities.
Cambodia has expressed its support for a US court after it charged Douglas Latchford, a leading expert on Khmer antiquities, with smuggling looted Cambodian relics and helping to sell them on the international art market by concealing their tainted histories with falsified documentation.
The New York Times reported last week that prosecutors alleged Latchford, 88, a dealer in and collector of Southeast Asian antiquities, falsified documents to make looted treasures easier to sell on the art market.
It said that in a federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday, Latchford was accused of having served for decades as a “conduit” for Cambodian antiquities that had been excavated illegally from ancient jungle temples during unrest in the country starting in the mid-1960s, with the beginnings of the Cambodian civil war.
Source: Kingdom supports prosecution of alleged artefact smuggler – Khmer Times
