via Denver Post, 01 December 2022: The third part of the Denver Post reporting on looted antiquities connected to Douglas Latchford showing up at the Denver Art Museum, and on an ongoing investigation with looted antiquities from Thailand.
The U.S. government is investigating three Thai pieces in Denver’s museum, including two Prakhon Chai statues and another relic from Bunker, as the Southeast Asian nation moves to reclaim its looted history.
“Anything that comes from Prakhon Chai, anything that comes from Plai Bat II, is illegal with clearly no provenance,” said Tanongsak Hanwong, an archaeologist and member of Thailand’s committee on repatriation of stolen artifacts, through an interpreter. “There is not a single Prakhon Chai statue that is on display in Thai museums. These pieces are all in U.S. museums and other museums around the world.”
While past attention from prosecutors and journalists has centered on Latchford’s illicit scheme in Cambodia, The Post’s investigation shows that Thailand suffered from much of the same cultural plundering.
“It’s in nobody’s interest to think very hard about the source of objects that everyone is enjoying and people are profiting from,” said Erin Thompson, an art crime professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Bunker’s role in what’s now known as the Prakhon Chai hoard is also deeply suspicious, art crime experts say, given her close association with Latchford and her history of using articles and books to validate his stolen relics.
Source: Stolen Thai art – Prakhon Chai bronzes – found in Denver Art Museum
