In a Sea of Stolen Artifacts, What Is the Role of the Museum?

via The San Francisco Standard, 21 February 2023: The discussion of the role of museums in the supply chain of looted artefacts. Unsurprisingly, Douglas Latchford comes up again, but there are also mentions of artefacts from Thailand and Papua New Guinea.

For Robert Mintz, director of programs at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum, provenance has become a constant discussion—particularly in light of the museum’s extensive Cambodian art collection. Mintz wants to document the history of the collection’s artifacts to the fullest extent possible, which is incredibly difficult.

“My predecessors didn’t see it as a question that needed to be asked in the way that we do,” Mintz said. “We follow each of these stories, and we follow the names.”

And in the realm of Cambodian artifacts specifically, there’s one key name that keeps coming up: Douglas Latchford.

Source: In a Sea of Stolen Artifacts, What Is the Role of the Museum?