In the News: Art's worst offenders are experiencing a just and overdue reckoning
Latest success stories highlight a continuing weakness in the multibillion-dollar art market.
AC Chairman and Founder Pens Op-ed on Need for Criminal Investigations and Legal Consequences
On December 31, The Hill published an Op-ed by AC Chairman and Founder Deborah Lehr on how the latest law enforcement successes in the field of antiquities looting and trafficking show how self policing of the art market has failed.
Want to learn more about the success stories making international headlines? Keep scrolling through this newsletter.
Manhattan DA Bans Former Hedge Fund Manager from Collecting Antiquities
The Antiquities Coalition commends Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr., his colleagues, and partners for the recovery of 180 stolen antiquities worth an estimated $70 million and securing a lifetime ban on acquiring ancient art for Michael H. Steinhardt.
Steinhardt, the hedge fund billionaire, has previously and repeatedly faced litigation for buying and selling looted and trafficked artifacts. To avoid criminal prosecution, he has now agreed to the unprecedented lifetime ban and to surrender the 180 illicit masterpieces in his collection. The Manhattan DA and Homeland Security Investigations are in the process of returning these cultural treasures to the 11 countries who are their rightful owners.
Deborah Lehr: This unprecedented step, described as “a deferred prosecution agreement,” may be more effective than a conviction. It should forever remove a major buyer of illicit antiquities from the market. This is no small thing as, since the 1990s, repeated litigation and scandals have been unable to curb what Vance described as the billionaire’s “rapacious appetite for plundered artifacts.”
Dig Into the Coverage
Read
- The New York Times: Micheal Steinhardt, Billionaire, Surrenders $70 Million in Stolen Relics
- The Guardian: US Billionaire surrenders $70 Million of Stolen Art
- Breaking Development from Haaretz: The Masked Dealer: The Future of U.S. Billionaire Michael Steinhardt’s Looted Artifacts' at Israel Museum
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Notorious Antiquities Trafficker Douglas Latchford Exposed
On October 3, 2021, The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published a groundbreaking investigation of millions of leaked documents that revealed stunning financial secrets and offshore dealings of world leaders, politicians, and billionaires from around the globe, better known as the Pandora Papers.
One of the actors targeted in the expose is Douglas Latchford, the notorious antiquities trafficker indicted in 2019 for dealing in stolen art and artifacts. This investigation uncovers how Latchford and his family set up trusts in tax havens shortly after he was linked to looted antiquities, and used trusts and offshore accounts to store antiquities.
The expose is a must-read, deeply reported investigation that destroys so much of the false narrative that glorifies Douglas Latchford and the antiquities trade. The loopholes exposed threaten not just nations such as Cambodia, or even our world heritage, but the responsible market and the global financial system.
But there is a lot to dig into. You can read all about this major expose on Latchford and this extensive investigation using the links below. Learn how the ICIJ tracked ancient Cambodian artifacts to leading galleries and museums; see how this looted heritage connects to offshore trusts; and read as our own Executive Director and expert on the protection of Cambodian cultural heritage, Tess Davis, weighs in on the issues.
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ICIJ
The team also drew from an art blog called “Chasing Aphrodite” published by investigative journalist Jason Felch who had already located a number of Latchford-owned pieces in museums. We also consulted with art experts Angela Chiu, a scholar of Asian art and Tess Davis, a lawyer, archaeologist and the executive director of the Antiquities Coalition, an organization that campaigns against the trafficking of cultural artifacts.
Tess Davis, the executive director of the Antiquities Coalition, an organization that campaigns against the trafficking of cultural artifacts, criticized the museum for not responding more thoroughly after a Latchford associate was indicted in 2016 and Latchford himself was indicted three years later.“The Met owed it to Cambodia — and itself — to do a full and public accounting of its Khmer collection then. That didn’t happen,” Davis said. ”There has still been no full and public accounting from the Met. It’s never too late to do the right thing, but what is the Met waiting for at this point?”
The Washington Post
“Accusations against Latchford … have been a matter of legal record for nearly 10 years now,” said Tess Davis, a lawyer, archaeologist and the executive director of the Antiquities Coalition, an organization that campaigns against the trafficking of cultural artifacts. “Museum leaders have had more than enough time to do the right thing. Instead, there is deafening silence.”
Tess Davis: "There has still been no full and public accounting from the Met. It's never too late to do the right thing, but what is the Met waiting for at this point?”
The Guardian
Artnet News
- The Pandora Papers Leak Reveals How the Late Dealer Douglas Latchford Used Offshore Accounts to Sell Looted Cambodian Antiquities
- The Denver Art Museum Is Returning Four Antiquities to Cambodia After the Pandora Papers Exposed Their Illicit Origins
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art Is Reviewing 45 Antiquities That Cambodian Officials Believe Were Stolen From the Country
The New York Times
The Art Newspaper
Hyperallergic
ABC News Australia
The Colorado Sun
Business Insider
By Topic
The Investigation: Latchford Exposed
- From temples to offshore trusts, a hunt for Cambodia’s looted heritage leads to top museums
- How we tracked Cambodian antiquities to leading museums and private galleries
- Global Hunt for Looted Treasures Leads to Offshore Trusts
- Offshore loot: how notorious dealer used trusts to hoard Khmer treasures
- The Pandora Papers Leak Reveals How the Late Dealer Douglas Latchford Used Offshore Accounts to Sell Looted Cambodian Antiquities
- Art Dealer Used Offshore Accounts to Trade Looted Antiquities, Pandora Papers Say
- Pandora Papers reveal Sydney art dealer's connections to alleged art trafficker Douglas Latchford
- Plundered art held by the Denver Art Museum revealed in Pandora Papers’ exposé of billionaire finances
- The 'Pandora Papers' investigation has linked the Met museum and the British Museum with suspected looted Cambodian antiquities
The Impact: Museums Respond
- The Denver Art Museum to return four artifacts to Cambodia after Pandora Papers investigation coverage of indicted art dealer
- After Pandora Papers, Met officials contacted U.S. attorneys about relics Cambodia says were stolen
- Museums respond to Pandora Papers antiquities investigation
- Denver Art Museum announces return of four artifacts to Cambodia
- After Pandora Papers, Met officials contacted U.S. attorneys about relics Cambodia says were stolen
- How artefacts linked to indicted dealer ended up in Australian galleries
- Cambodia celebrates return of ancient Khmer sculptures from Douglas Latchford collection
- The Denver Art Museum Is Returning Four Antiquities to Cambodia After the Pandora Papers Exposed Their Illicit Origins
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art Is Reviewing 45 Antiquities That Cambodian Officials Believe Were Stolen From the Country
- Cambodia Says the Met Museum Has Dozens of Its Looted Antiquities
- Museums face pressure to explain presence of Cambodian relics linked to disgraced dealer Douglas Latchford
Prefer to listen? Podcast Coverage
Don't Miss: The AC Interviews Angela Chiu on the Pandora Papers
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