Treasure Hunters: Searching for Cambodia’s Stolen Antiquities | Foreign Correspondent

Thanks, Cambodia's ancient temples are places to behold, but once you enter you realize something is wrong. The cameras have been looted. Precious antiques looted everywhere you look. There are empty pedestals where sandstone gods, kings and Buddhas once stood. I like 10 statues that just left on a truck. one day we're talking thousands over decades of conflict, looters raided these revered temples and smuggled their statues to Shady International art dealers. Now an epic global

treasure

hunt is underway to track down what they took and bring it home. This is the place where the temple is located. Temple pedestal after pedestal searched for 4,000

stolen

statues the biggest heartbreak in history prized pieces are returning from museums and private collections around the world this once belonged to Cambodia this is Cambodian culture and investigators now have Australia in their sights In this The Foreign Correspondent episode he will scour Cambodia for evidence of looted

treasure

s and give you the exclusive inside story of how the National Gallery of Australia was scammed for Southeast Asia's most famous art.

A thief off the busy tourist trail deep in the jungle of northern Cambodia. It is coke in the 10th century, these ancient temples were the capital of the great Khmer Empire, but today they became homosexual, it is one of the most looted sites in the country. I have been given access to the Cambodian operation to identify, track and recover the country's lost treasures. Signs from experts. statues made into bronze statues historians apologists conservationists lawyers is an incredible group of talented people American lawyer Bradley Gordon has been appointed by the Cambodian government to lead the restitution team, so our mission today we focus on this statue here, right where they are investigating the theft of one of Gay's greatest masterpieces, the Hindu god Shiva and goddess Uma riding an anandi ox.

We know he was here. We need to find out where he went and we really need to bring him home. Lead researcher Quincia Chuan is trying to find someone who remembers the statue showing this guard a photo taken at the temple in the 1930s aware that he has seen it before and remembers exactly where it was if okay he saw it in abroad when you were a teenager in the 1970s do you remember when it was

stolen

? um, she doesn't know when the contamination came from here, she doesn't like it, with the location confirmed, the team begins

searching

for any fragments of the ox statue that the looters may have left behind.

We are in a hurry, they were not safe. operations most of the time they left behind the pedestals they left arms behind their left legs their left ears and if we can find any remnant we can include it in the documentation that we gathered as evidence that we can prove that it came from this Temple, that is very powerful seeing this it is the fragment of the left leg that looks rounded and has some decoration then on a part of the leg yes, here it would seem to be very similar similar yes, it is very interesting, I can say my heart falls I love this project because I think which is very important for my country when you look at broken statues, how does it make you feel?

Yes, I feel very upset because the statue had the spirit inside. I keep the question of why people do that, the looting. Cambodia's cultural heritage dates back to the French colonial era, taking statues and placing them in museums which began with the French, the trade continued after independence in 1953. In the 60s heads were coming out, the heads were the easiest to take out first and then they would return later and take the bodies. The looting continued when Cambodia was drawn into the Vietnam War in the late 1960s and did not stop as the country entered the darkest chapter in its history.

The brutal reign of Poland's Khmer Rouge there was a terrible genocide Cambodia lost at least a third of its population, if not more, in 1979 the Khmer Rouge were overthrown by the Vietnamese, but continued to control lands near the Thai border, including areas rich in temples like Poke 79. We see how gangs form and loot and chamber that was involved and would finance their purchase of weapons. We know that there were other armies involved, many different factions, all smelling money as the conflict raged in the illegal trade that flourished in the 80s. You are starting to see many statues removed. and then in the '90s it reaches a fever pitch and you had an armed conflict in Country 98, you've just reached the end of the Kimber Ridge period, we're talking recent history, this is within my lifetime, your lifetime, thank you , Khmer statues had become important. items for art dealers and must-have pieces for private collectors and museums hungry for exotic pieces from the Far East.

It is very accurate to describe them as blood antiques. Now the restitution team is picking up the pieces. It's an epic mess we're trying to clean up. There are thousands of crime sites, the team estimates that there are 2,000 stolen statues in private collections and another 2,000 in 105 international museums. Are there any in Australia? Yes, there are many, there are many in Australia and I think when we start to really investigate what it is. In Australia we might be surprised to learn that some of Cambodia's greatest national treasures ended up there. We now head southeast across the mighty Mekong River to Tabom Komun province on the Vietnamese border.

We have been investigating three statues that the team is taking over. I met a man who has information about three bronze Buddhist statues stolen and then sold to the National Gallery of Australia. The national galleries thought they were from Vietnam. We actually found a man here in Cambodia who knows these statues and dug them up. he took them out of the ground, he took them out of the ground and we will take you to meet him today, the home of the lovely people of Cambodia, descendants of the ancient Kingdom of Champa, once a Buddhist community that converted to Islam, this is the ancient plunderer.

We have come to meet the teams codenamed Halcón. Do you recognize any of these three pieces? That's about 25 US dollars. Could you take me to the place where you dug up this? The Champa Kingdom existed from the 2nd century until approximately the 19th century. a vast empire that at its peak controlled most of what is now central and southern Vietnam and, at times, parts of Cambodia. Locals believe that one of the last champion kings was buried nearby and that his treasures were also buried here when they dug here in 1994 when it was a dense jungle.

Today a distinctive tree remains to help him remember where he found the statue. This is the place. Are you sure they are coming from this field tomorrow morning? How did you know the statue was here? Foreign. The Falcon worked with another raider codenamed Leon. He died in 2021. but he confessed to looting the other two charming statues from the same field. These statues are now in Australia at the National Gallery of Australia, which paid US$1.5 million for them. What do you think of that

foreign

er because of the way the losers tell it? The three lovely bronzers. They were packaged and smuggled across the Thai border to be sold there and, like so many stolen treasures in Cambodia, ended up in the hands of one man.

This is where we find the next link in the chain. A bodybuilding contest in Thailand. The man who delivers. The trophies here are Douglas Latchford, a wealthy British businessman who moved to Bangkok when he was 20, and Rose to become the number one dealer in stolen Cambodian

antiquities

. Douglas Latchford was deeply involved in the dilution of the networks we have been investigating here in Cambodia. This is someone. who was obsessed with these statues, he didn't care how he got them or where they came from, he found his way into the auction houses, into Sotheby's and Christies and into the museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, all these institutions. who have been around for a long time have a very credible reputation and he was able to sell them for millions and millions of dollars.

He was an incredible scammer. The restitution team has recovered about 300 antiques, most tied to Latchford Missouri in this gallery. is Doria Donna this is a statue that brought down Douglas Latchford the durian Donna now occupies a place of honor in the national museum in Phnom Penh it was looted in 1972 for cocaine and after decades with a private collector it resurfaced in 2011 for an auction at Sotheby's in The US government in New York obtained information that the feet were here in Cambodia. They seized the statue and the statue ends up being returned to Cambodia and you can see that there is a very precise match to the fake one, right?

Yes. It's a perfect match US investigators alleged that Lutchford knew it had been stolen when he bought it and that he helped falsify documentation to bring it to the UK. Latchford denied ever owning the duryodana, but the case put him firmly on the radar of US prosecutors and when did he stop trading? What did he do? He didn't continue. He was an addict. He really showed no remorse in 2019. American authorities charged him with trafficking Cambodian

antiquities

, but he died in 2020 before facing trial. Latchford may have escaped justice, but the investigations did not stop tourism. Five or six people.

Brad and Quinta returned to Coque, where there was a breakthrough in the missing ox case. This man code-named Jungle Cat was a runner and claims his gang stole the statue from the temple in the 90s. The

foreign

sculpture was in pieces when it was smuggled across the border into Thailand. the jungle tried to repair it to sell it the jungle cat remembers that he had three potential buyers, including Douglas Latchford, who he sold it to um, what we learned today from Jungle Cat was she was the second largest collector of stolen Cambodian antiques, after by Douglas Latchford, that's huge.

Jungle Cat Tip leads the restitution team to Thailand's capital, Bangkok, the gateway to Cambodia's stolen antiquities. The teams managed to locate the Thai trader. who bought the stolen ox that was in his store several years ago has been given the code name Poison Ivy and Brad is waiting for her to talk. I just hope that today we find her a little apprehensive but excited because this is really important. She is one of the most critical people we are following right now, we have heard a lot about her, we think she might know a ton about Douglasberg about the whole stock comparison business.

I hope she talks to you, yes, I hope so. good luck thanks Brad wants to meet her alone so she doesn't get scared after two hours she comes back with a cardboard box they gave me everything on the show which was a camera all as a gift for Cambodia um I'm that poison ivy oh you met her the You met, he was in the shower, I explained who I was, I told him, you know, I worked for the Cambodian government. I came here today and said, can we take pictures of these? She said you can have them all, what did she do? said about the operations, then she admitted that she handled it, it was quite extraordinary, she didn't deny it, she said, look, this went through many hands, I was just one of them, I received a commission and it's long gone, this is the attitude , she said she can.

I don't remember if we should open it, okay, these fragments were assembled as decorations, but we will go home as gods. I feel like it wasn't all I have. I have the opportunity for this statue to be a good result of speaking and recovering all of this. to our country, so it's incredible, it's good days for our team. I think we'll go talk to the Thai authorities and see if we can get them to do something. Charming bronze statues in the National Gallery of Australia are strengthening the Latchford family. has started handing over its files and Brad came to show me thousands and thousands of emails, invoices, receipts, they are all on this hard drive and if there were any documents in the files relating to the lovely statues that are in the National Gallery of Australia .

The amazing email we found has this map, this is the area we've been looking at in terms of where the looters said they found these statues, then we found documents relating to the offer to Australia, so we see in 2011 he sends a letter to who may care by saying that I am offering it for sale to the National Gallery of Australia. He has found the buyer for him. You know they're paying $1.5 million for these three statues. These documents prove that the NGA purchased Latchford directly. I understand that they were under a confidentiality agreement, a secrecy agreement, and they have not released that information.

What is in our files now is a clear indication that Doug's Latchford was the seller, the NGA performed due diligence when purchasing these statues. I don't think they followed the standards they should have.in terms of international museums. You know, you combine it with the map, the looters' testimony, the information we have from the emails, etc. I firmly believe these pieces are from Cambodia and were stolen. should not have been purchased by the MGA based on the evidence collected, Cambodian governments request the return of the National Gallery of Australia's tanners. He also suspects that the gallery has up to 20 stolen Khmer statues.

Our priority is to bring them back home. pen Moni Makara is the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Culture. The National Gallery of Australia needs to review their acquisitions process and they need to take a look at their checks and balances. What would you say to international museums and private collectors around the world that I have Cambodian antiquities now, the Cambodian people have never given permission to take away all these statues now they belong to the Cambodian people to us, they are not just art, these They are gods and kings, our kings and our God are not meant to be their table.

These gods are being returned to a country that is now at peace, but for many here life is still a struggle. Prime Minister Juan Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander, has ruled with an iron fist for 38 years. He announced that he will hand over power to his son later this month, but will still inform him that Hunsen's government is in trouble of corruption and a worsening human rights record and there will be some people who say we should not go back. statues to a regime like this, what do you say? It's not so much about doing something that is only for the powerful, but about doing something for people in general.

I think it is appropriate to help Cambodia recover its cultural heritage. On the human rights side, I think it is also appropriate to ask difficult questions. I don't think other nations can take elements of cultural heritage hostage to try to bring about changes in human rights, but I think they can raise those issues and I think they can put pressure on governments. to change their behavior and I think they can criticize these governments while returning something that is good miles away from Phnom Penh. I came with the restitution team to Canberra, to the National Gallery of Australia, we did it, yes, thank you very much.

Today's trip is momentous the National Gallery this is our team happy to meet you come here after two years of negotiations the gallery has removed the three bronze statues from storage so the team can see the incredible and finally amazing Ray and a little bit of flower Amazing, the flower is so beautiful when I can see how beautiful this statue is. I don't know how to describe my feeling, but I'm so lucky to be able to see the real thing here. Seeing the statues reminds him of the team of looters who took these treasures, but I always regretted it and together many, many stories, what do you think Falcon would do with this?

Brad. I think he would cry like us. Yes, he gives a lot of meaning to our work. I followed this team from a rice field in Cambodia to Canberra for these statues and not only can you see them today - the National Gallery of Australia has agreed to return them - but serious questions remain about how the gallery acquired the statues in 2011. Hello Miss Zoe , a pleasure to meet you. Nick Mitzvich is the current one at the gallery. Director, what provenance information did Douglas Lutchford provide to the NGA? Well, Douglas Lashford provided us with the provenance history and the provenance history indicated that he was exported from Vietnam, not Cambodia.

Vietnam did not require export licenses, it would then move to a private collection in Hong Kong then a London collection, the National Gallery knew the private collector was dead so there was really nothing further to explore, there were no signs alert with Latchford at the time, so the gallery accepted the provenance provided. We, Douglas Latchford, asked the NGA to sign a confidentiality agreement. What was that for? I haven't really gotten to the bottom of why he told the National Gallery to be able to provide us with the history of the object. The confidence was that it wasn't a red flag, it seems obvious now, but we take people at face value and that's certainly not appropriate today.

Thank you later that day. A ceremony to write a historical error. Thank you for joining us today at an important moment. Delivery and repatriation of a Cambodian work that we have had here in the National Gallery and in Australia the statues are blessed marking a new beginning. Cambodian Ambassador Chin Buron Chambarai formally received the statues, but they are not coming home just yet, thank you. They will remain on loan at the NGA for three years, but they will no longer have doubts about where they come from and who they belong to. I think we're seeing a trend that will continue over the next 10 to 20 years where there will be a lot of objects.

We will go back to the rightful owners, we have a tremendous amount of detective work to do and we have many leads now and we are receiving more every day. I love more things to come.