In 1994, a looter code-named The Falcon dug up an ancient treasure that decades later would end up in an Australian gallery. Now, it's being given back.
They soon discovered he was known in some circles as "Dynamite Doug" for the alleged method his looters used to blow sacred statues from their pedestals.
Their testimonies have been crucial in helping the restitution team work out what was stolen and when. Old photos, sketches and diaries are proving invaluable too.Angkor Wat in Cambodia has had many of its treasures stolen by looters over the centuries."They left arms behind, they left legs, they left ears, and if we can find any remnants, we can put that in the documentation put together for the evidence.
The Lion and The Falcon have done hours of interviews with the team and taken them to specific sites of interest, including Tboung Khmum, where the bronzes were dug up.He was stunned when Foreign Correspondent told him the gilded bronze statue he found was in the National Gallery of Australia, and that it paid so much for the set.
After Latchford's death, the restitution team began negotiating with his family for the return of the stolen statues in his private collection. Based on the evidence collected, the Cambodian government requested the return of the Cham bronzes from the National Gallery. The National Gallery of Australia's Dr Nick Mitzevich says the evidence is "irrefutable" that the statues were exported illegally from Cambodia.
"There were no red flags for this institution with Latchford at the time, and so the gallery did accept the provenance that was provided to us," Dr Mitzevich said."[But] of course [he] created a provenance that led the National Gallery to some dead ends, and he was obviously a mastermind at ensuring that those provenance questions didn't find a way through."
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