The news stories from Wednesday’s announcement of a new round of repatriated artifacts linked to Douglas Latchford. 28 artefacts from this latest batch belong to Jim Clark, the co-founder of Netscape, who bought the artefacts from Latchford.
Dozens of ancient relics hacked from Cambodian temples and other historical sites and allegedly trafficked to the United States are headed home after a prominent tech billionaire, James H. Clark, the co-founder of Netscape, agreed to return them.
The 35 relics from Clark’s private collection include a monumental sandstone sculpture that once adorned an ancient Khmer capital city and bronze sculptures from near Angkor Wat. Clark obtained the items more than a decade ago, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, from the late Douglas Latchford, a British art dealer indicted in 2019 for allegedly trafficking hundreds of antiquities from Southeast Asia.
“For the Cambodian people, these lost treasures are of enormous importance,” said Bradley J. Gordon, legal advisor to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. “Their return is expected to bring prosperity, serenity and pride to Cambodia.”
While the complaint only identifies the person returning the art as a “collector,” Clark confirmed in an interview with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and The Washington Post that the pieces had been in his private collection. A 2011 Latchford book also attributes eight relics that match photos of those now in federal custody to Clark’s collection.
Clark, 77, said he paid Latchford roughly $35 million for the now-forfeited pieces, which came mostly from Cambodia. He said he had displayed them in a Miami Beach penthouse he owned for a few years before moving them to a Palm Beach storage unit, where they remained for more than a decade before he turned them over to authorities.
Source: Tech titan surrenders Cambodian relics sold by indicted dealer amid broader repatriation push – ICIJ
See also:
- U.S. private collector to return 28 looted antiquities to Cambodia | Xinhua, 12 jan 2022
- Looted sculpture once at Denver Art Museum part of federal seizure tied to indicted art dealer Douglas Latchford | The Denver Post, 12 Jan 2022
- ប្រសើរណាស់! វត្ថុបុរាណខ្មែរចំនួន ២៨រូប នឹងត្រលប់មកមាតុភូមិខ្មែរវិញ | Sabay News, 12 Jan 2022
- Major collection of Cambodian and Southeast Asian antiquities subject of forfeiture action | Khmer Times, 12 Jan 2022
- Tech billionaire surrenders Cambodian relics sold by indicted art dealer | Washington Post, 13 Jan 2022
- More Cambodian Relics Linked to Douglas Latchford are Going Home | The Observer, 13 Jan 2022
- Dozens of Cambodian Artifacts Surrendered by Netscape Founder Amid Global Repatriation Efforts | ArtNews, 13 Jan 2022
- Trove of 28 looted relics recovered | Phnom Penh Post, 13 Jan 2022
- U.S.: Artifacts Sold by Pandora Papers Named Looter to be Returned | OCRP, 18 Jan 2022
