Britain returns treasure trove of stolen Angkor crown jewels to Cambodia

The Cambodian culture ministry said officials in Cambodia received the 77 pieces from the family of British antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford

Latchford died in 2020 while awaiting trial in the US for art trafficking and his family agreed with Cambodia to return his collection of Khmer antiquities

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An ancient crown among the stolen crown jewels returned to Cambodia from Britain.
Photo: Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts / Handout via Xinhua

Published: 7:43am, 21 Feb 2023

Dozens of pieces of Angkorian crown jewellery stolen from Cambodia, many never seen by the public, have been returned after resurfacing in London, the Cambodian culture ministry said Monday.

The trove includes crowns, necklaces, amulets and other treasures from the Angkor period, which ran from the ninth to 14th centuries AD, when the Khmer empire was a dominant force in Southeast Asia.

The ministry said officials in Cambodia received the 77 pieces from the family of British antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford.

An ancient crown is among the 77 pieces of stolen Cambodian jewellery returned to Cambodia from Britain. Photo: Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts / Handout via Xinhua

Latchford died in 2020 while awaiting trial in the United States for art trafficking, and his family reached an agreement with Cambodia the same year to return his collection of Khmer antiquities.

The collection, which arrived discreetly in Cambodia on Friday, features “gold and other precious metal pieces from the pre-Angkorian and Angkorian period including crowns, necklaces, bracelets, belts, earrings and amulets”, the ministry said.

As Cambodia was ravaged by civil wars and a genocide by the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s, thousands of antiques were looted and sold through dealers in Thailand and Hong Kong to wealthy buyers and museums in Europe and the United States.

US prosecutors have been pushing to return many of the works in recent years.