Douglas Latchford marketed stolen Cambodian art for decades. And he couldn’t have done it without Denver Art Museum consultant Emma Bunker
in her name, raising tens of thousands of dollars to purchase new pieces for its collection. Museum officials celebrated Bunker’s “academic and scholarly contributions to the field of Asian art.”
“Thought him bizarre as wearing a sarong and 6-foot-4,” according to a statement Bunker made in connection with a 2012 federal court case. Bunker’s daughter and other friends said they believed Bunker may have been in love with Latchford, though it was unclear whether their relationship ever became romantic.
In their writings, Latchford and Bunker describe scenes reminiscent of an Indiana Jones flick: The intrepid Western adventures helicoptering into remote Cambodian jungles to unearth and preserve long-neglected relics of Khmer’s imperial past. One of those fearless adventurers was Angus Forsyth, a Hong Kong attorney and art collector. Bunker led the trips, he said, directing where the group should go. They stayed in fancy hotels, enjoyed hearty meals and were treated to behind-the-scenes tours of reserve collections at Cambodian museums.Latchford and Bunker wrote of the elation they felt being “among the first in modern times to revisit a site that still exudes a rare exoticism.
The statue was in “dreadful condition,” the pair noted — its arms and hands missing, its legs destroyed after being ripped from its base. They were “determined to see it returned to Cambodia, since it represents an unexplored aspect of Khmer culture.” Bunker in 2004 recruited a significant donor to help with a project to take an entire inventory of the museum’s collection, an undertaking that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and took seven years to complete.
Visitors walking around the National Museum and its grounds are bound to spot both of their names on antiquity descriptions and plaques celebrating their generosity. LEFT: A donor plaque with Douglas Latchford and Emma Bunker’s names hangs inside the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh on Aug. 8, 2022. RIGHT: Another donor plaque is pictured that same day. Rumors circulated for years about Latchford’s alleged exploits, but it was a 2012 civil case filed by the U.S.
Prosecutors say he had trouble selling the statue due its “lack of legitimate provenance” — or ownership history — “and missing feet.” Experts say statues broken at the feet are a tell-tale sign of looting. Four weeks later, Bunker changed her tune. The Cambodians, she came to believe through her “culture spies” inside the government, wouldn’t ask for it back, clearing the way for its sale — and for the scholar to make a presentation on its meaning and value for the auction house.
The scholar, in a later email, suggested Sotheby’s may not want to “show or mention the feet” were still in Koh Ker — the visual proof that the antiquity was looted. Sotheby’s did, but rejected the country’s request to return it. So Cambodia enlisted the U.S. government on its behalf. The June 2013 interview at a law office in downtown Denver was not confrontational, according to the document, with the federal agents saying Bunker “was not a target of a criminal investigation.” They wanted to ask the scholar for background information for their civil case — “though there was hint that a criminal case was in the offing.”
The ancient statue is now prominently displayed in Cambodia’s National Museum, arranged with a series of others to replicate the royal battle it once depicted at Prasat Chen in Koh Keh. But while the Duryodhana is back, other pedestals surrounding it remain empty. Investigators alleged that “co-conspirator #1” — Latchford — sold Wiener the stolen bronze Buddha in 2011 for $500,000. She later admitted to knowing it had been illegally imported, sending it to an art restorer to clean off the dirt and debris.
In another email reviewed by investigators, Latchford said he typically gave Bunker “bronze statues in exchange for false letters of provenance.”in 2017, saying she did not recall the matters cited in the Wiener case., she offered a rare insight into the dirty world of the international art market. The Prasat Krachap temple in Koh Ker, Cambodia, is pictured on Aug. 10, 2022. A former looter named Toek Tik told government officials he had removed “Skanda and Shiva,” “Skanda on a Peacock” and 11 other statues from this location. On June 28, 2009, Bunker wrote to her old friend that she’d found a variety of letterheads while going through her Denver apartment. These included a who’s who of major international auction houses and prominent dealers: Spink & Son, J.J.
This email clearly shows Bunker helping to create fake provenances, using fake signatures, to enable Latchford to move his looted pieces, Gordon said.
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