Bangkok: Douglas Latchford, a leading expert and dealer in Khmer and Indian antiquities, has died in Bangkok at the age of 89.
Born to British parents in then Bombay, Latchford, who had been living in Thailand since 1951, built a reputation as a world expert in Khmer antiquities, co-writing three reference books with the American academic Emma Bunker. In the 1970s he became one of the most prominent suppliers of Cambodian art to museums and collectors in the US and Europe, notably through Spink’s in London. He died in Bangkok on August 2.
His donations to the National Museum of Phnom Penh earned him a knighthood in 2008.
Last November, a New York District Attorney announced the indictment of Douglas Latchford for alleged smuggling and trafficking in stolen and looted Cambodian antiquities. “In order to conceal that his antiquities were the product of looting and smuggling”, the indictment claims, Latchford allegedly created “false provenance” and “falsified invoices and shipping documents”. He denied the charges.
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