LOOT: A Story of Crime and Redemption (2025) Movie Script
1
[birds and insects calling]
Pen Moni Makara:
To us Cambodians,
the descendants
of the Khmer civilization,
each of these artifacts
has special meaning.
Pen:
It's a symbol of protection.
Pen:
They are symbol of unity.
Pen:
It's a symbol of our soul.
Pen: Looting
and illicit trafficking
is why our nation was broken.
JP Labbat: These are bigger
than just, you know,
regular run-of-the-mill cases.
These artifacts,
once they're gone,
they're gone forever.
When I walk through
a museum today
and I look at those statues,
I just know that
there's so much history
that the people looking at
those statues don't wanna know.
Thanaren Than:
People lost their life.
People lost
their part of the body,
their family member,
try to get the sculpture out.
[men yelling]
Tess Davis:
In a very short time period,
they fell victim
to war profiteers.
They fell victim to greed.
JP: The networks behind them
were very advanced.
The smuggling routes
were complicated.
These are
a difficult investigation.
Tess: The illicit trade
in art and antiquities
is funding organized crime.
It's funding violent extremism.
Death threats,
calls in the morning
at three o'clock.
People have families.
They got kids.
You know, you don't
put that stuff at risk.
Voice Actor [Douglas]:
"My daughter
"and my bodybuilder chef
"talked to two priests,
independent of one another.
"Both of the priests indicated
that in some previous life
"I was Khmer
and that what I collect
"had once belonged to me."
[camera shutter clicking]
Malia Politzer:
You know, he would take people
like the Lindemanns,
who were these billionaires.
Martin Lerner, who, at the time,
was the curator
of The Metropolitan
Museum of Art,
to these remote jungle sites
and then having someone like
Latchford show them around
and have so much knowledge
about all of these items
must have been very exciting.
Angela Chiu: There was
a British stone conservator.
Simon Warrack is his name.
Malia: He had been working at
this beautiful site of Koh Ker,
which used to be
the capital of the Khmer Empire.
Malia: The statues there
are very, very distinct
and very different.
This is the site
of this beautiful piece
that they call
"the Duryodhana."
And then, he spotted
two pieces of stone
in the ground.
These blocks just had
the feet attached
and the body
was nowhere in sight.
This is pretty much
where they were
when... when we saw the feet
the first time.
And since then,
they've excavated this trench.
Angela: He happened
to be in a library,
and he saw a statue,
and he could see
by the position of the legs.
He said, "You know,
this kind of looks like
"it might fit
one of those pedestals."
And sure enough,
he kind of lined them
and he said, like,
"You know, I think this is...
"this is matching."
Angela:
A few years later,
Eric Bourdonneau,
a French researcher,
he was able to do
computer modeling
to show that that statue,
said to be owned
by a private collection,
matched the pedestal.
Angela:
Sotheby's put that statue
on the cover of its auction
of Southeast Asian art
for an estimated value
of two to three million dollars.
Cambodia then sent a letter
to Sotheby's saying,
"Don't sell it, because,
you know, the feet are found.
"This statue
belongs to Cambodia."
Within hours to spare,
this auction was stopped.
[birds calling]
Malia: US Authorities said,
"Look, like this is looted.
"We wanna return it
to Cambodia."
And Sotheby's said,
"No, no, no, no, no.
"We wanna sell it and we have
the right to sell it."
And so they, in the search
for the providence,
reached out to Emma Bunker,
who also was a very close friend
of Douglas Latchford's.
A lot of the E-mails
between Emma Bunker
and Douglas Latchford
were very illuminating,
and it was clear that he
definitely was the first owner
because they were then
trying to cover for him.
You know, I think that kind of
made him a person of interest.
I don't know where they imagined
that I own the piece,
but let me confirm to you first
that I did not own the piece.
I had nothing to do with it.
So, the Pandora Papers
was this cache
of nearly 12 million,
um, financial documents
from offshore secrecy havens
that showed how wealthy people,
and also sometimes criminals,
conceal their assets.
I ended up working on
the Latchford one,
and so I just was
basically going through
every single document
I could find.
Was able to see,
"Oh, this guy Latchford
is pretty interesting."
Malia:
"Where did the antiquities go
"and where did the money go?"
And we were trying to track
both of those things.
JP: Any time I would see a story
about law enforcement, or crime,
but in particular,
like the federal agents,
I just knew that that's
what I needed to be doing.
It was just like a calling,
and I'm like,
"That's what I'm gonna do."
JP: I hear rumblings
of an agent in our office
who's recovering
ancient artifacts,
so I sought him out,
and there's been
no looking back ever since.
It's been a wild ride.
JP: Whenever we start
an antiquities case,
we approach it from two aspects.
"Can we prove that
the piece is dirty?"
And then, "Can we prove that
someone committed a crime?"
"Did someone knowingly
smuggle something illicit?"
Two aspects,
the piece itself,
and then whether
someone broke the law.
I knew Latchford was dirty.
What I was trying
to figure out is "How involved?"
"How dirty was Latchford?"
[camera shutter clicking]
In 2016, I led Operation
Indochina Peninsula Plunder,
which was the investigation
into Douglas Latchford
and his network.
If you're going to allege
that a particular artifact
originates in a certain temple,
who's going to know that better
than people there on the ground?
[horn beeping]
My name's Bradley Gordon.
I'm officially appointed
to advise the ministry
on repatriations
of stolen antiquities.
Brad Gordon:
I walk into a museum,
I feel like, oh, you know,
"Do they have my picture behind,
you know, somewhere?"
And they, "Brad Gordon,
don't let this guy in."
The DOJ said to me,
"We're working on a case
involving Sotheby's.
You know, "You know about
Latchford, right?"
If you look at Cambodia,
and you're considering
the number of temples
that these guys raided,
the number of crime sites,
the number of statues,
it's an enormous amount.
Brad: You know, we were hired
to find the looting network,
track down villagers,
track down witnesses.
You know, in the beginning,
I didn't quite know where
Latchford fit into the picture.
[boat engine humming]
Brad:
And so, with Naren,
the two of us
went over the country,
interviewed many, many people.
People were terrified.
They were afraid.
You transform a piece of rock
into a piece of art
and then you also
embed spirituality,
sense of divinity,
in that piece of rock.
[birds calling]
[stream babbling]
Blue Tiger's extraordinary.
[laughs]
You know, he... he was
a trusted lieutenant
of Lion,
um, you know,
the head of the gang.
Brad: You know,
he has helped us tremendously,
given what was taken out
of Prasat Krachap.
As soon as I heard about the
statues that came out of there,
I knew that this was
an extremely significant temple,
and Blue Tiger's, um...
was there and participated in
the removal of the statues.
[gun firing]
[men yelling]
So, Khmer Rouge
was a communist movement.
Um, they... they started
guerrilla warfare
from the early 60s.
You know, in the 60s,
President Nixon
and his secretary of state,
Kissinger, they bombed Cambodia
without telling congress.
Brad: More bombs
were dropped on Cambodia
than any time before
in mankind's history.
[bombs booming]
Brad: It definitely
destabilized the country.
There's no question about it.
[bombs booming]
Brad: The Khmer Rouge
were empowered by the bombing
because so many people
in the countryside
joined the Khmer Rouge.
Reporter:
April, 1975,
Khmer Rouge soldiers
are surging into Phnom Penh,
Cambodia's capital.
[flames crackling]
Reporter: Widespread panic
permeates the streets
as the new government
empties the city,
marching the population
into the countryside.
Angela: They basically
tore apart all the traditions
and institutions
of Cambodian life.
So, they tore apart families,
you know, schools,
uh, you know, the government,
Buddhism.
All these things
they... they tried to destroy.
Angela:
I think they've estimated
between one
and three million people died
from either being murdered,
or from famine, or illness.
After the Khmer Rouge,
uh, fell, then, you know,
all these people who had been
separated from their villages,
from their families,
they didn't know
who was alive or who was dead.
You know,
they had no income, had to...
A desperate...
A desperate struggle
for survival.
There was all kinds of looting
of artifacts that took place.
Will Korner:
In conflict and crisis zones,
you quite often have
a breakdown of the social order.
You have opportunity
for criminals,
but also,
people we wouldn't
necessarily think of
as criminals,
to take advantage
of that situation,
maybe to feed their families.
JP: In 2016, Latchford, he's
just a blip on the radar screen.
So, my first question,
"What is Latchford about?"
Malia: Latchford was born
in the British Raj, in India,
and then went
to boarding school.
And then, when he was
about 20, he moved to Bangkok
and then he just fell in love
with Khmer culture.
Latchford had
a reputation for hanging out
with the museum glitterati,
the society people,
and he was a very high-profile
character around Bangkok.
Voice actor [Douglas]:
"I was at dinner one evening
"with Franois Duhau de Berenx,
who was an interior decorator.
"Franois showed me
a stone female torso
"and it immediately
had an effect on me
"that would change my life.
"I was smitten,
and could from then on
"think of nothing
but this wonderful torso."
Malia:
He fell in love with it
and he started
collecting Khmer antiquity
at this voracious speed.
Alan Parkhouse: One of my jobs
as a journalist in Bangkok
was to write a story
about Douglas Latchford,
and, uh, he showed me
through his place,
and every little nook
and cranny of that apartment
had some ancient artifact
sitting on it,
pretty much like
you'd see in a museum,
but these were sitting on
mantelpieces and shelves.
You could see he had a deep
affection for those pieces,
probably more
than he did for people.
Alan: The fortune teller
had told him that
he had once been Khmer
in a previous life,
and that's why he loved
all these Khmer statues.
Angela:
On the public side,
he tried to present himself
as this adventurous scholar.
So, this is kind of
drawing on those colonial motif
of a very heroic European man
who goes into the jungle
and discovers lost cities,
somebody who rescued
these Khmer artifacts
that had been lost
to the jungle.
Alan: Douglas owned
the entire apartment block
that he lived in.
He kept the whole floor
for himself
and there was
very heavy security there.
I remember
walking up to the window
of the security guard there and,
and there being a number
of other security guards
watching me
from inside the gate,
all bodybuilders.
Voice Actor [Douglas]: "One of
the things I do as a hobby
"is to help the Thai
Bodybuilding Association.
"I was elected as president
"for Asia earlier this year.
Luke Hunt: His love of
the Thai bodybuilding,
so we're told,
had more to do
with his lifestyle than, uh,
anything to do with, uh...
[sighs]
- -sport?
For the longest time,
he was just this, um,
kind of quirky, strange, like,
dinner conversation companion.
It took a long time
for them to realize
who exactly this man was.
JP: When I went and
interviewed some of the looters,
they talk about
how they actually met with
Douglas Latchford.
So, you know,
he has direct communication
and direct access
to the looters.
[birds calling]
JP:
We sat down with Blue Tiger,
showed the images of artifacts
that we were still hunting.
He was able to,
and another looter was able to,
identify some pieces that they
were directly responsible
for having taken
out of the country,
which was, which is,
you know, so rare.
The entire interview
was a... a "wow moment."
I was... I had my eyes wide open
and my jaw dropped the entire
time we were talking to them,
because who, what,
where, when, how, right?
That's what you need
to... to prove a case,
and, they...
We have that
from the mouth of... of...
for people involved.
The Skanda on Peacock statue,
which sold for $1.5 million,
I was able to
successfully track it down
and I got it
returned to Cambodia.
And then your hunt continues,
because there's so many of them.
He's selling statues
for one, 1.5 apiece.
We know Shiva and Skanda,
he tried to sell for 25 million.
Yeah, $25 million.
And he had another statue,
the Durga
that's going back to Vietnam,
he tried to sell
for $34 million.
[bird and bugs calling]
JP: Once I realized that
Latchford's a bigger player,
you know,
Latchford becomes his own board.
Who are his sources?
His sources are
the looters in Cambodia.
Who is he supplying?
Numerous entities.
They're going to supply museums.
They're going
to supply gallery owners.
They're going...
going to supply
private collectors.
JP:
Before you know it,
you have so many names
on the board.
It was simply a matter of
"Okay, what's next?"
Angela: You know,
among all the many people
who aided and abetted
Douglas Latchford,
Emma Bunker is probably
the most important person.
JP: Emma Bunker was
a major co-conspirator
of Douglas Latchford's.
Because Emma Bunker was attached
to the Denver Art Museum,
Latchford could introduce
pieces to a major museum
and have Emma Bunker vouch for
the integrity of the pieces
for the purpose of laundering
so that he could turn around
and resell it using the name
of the Denver Art Museum.
"Oh, this piece
was just... just shown
"at the Denver Art Museum."
So, no one would ever think that
there was a problem with it.
JP: Um, there's a number
of Latchford pieces
that have an Ian Donaldson
reference in the provenance.
Angela: Some of them
were supposedly written
after Ian Donaldson
had already died.
It's clearly letters that
were cooked up by Latchford.
Angela:
I mean, how cynical is that,
that you... you use
your dead friend's name
and, you know, imitate,
try to fake a signature
for your dead friend?
It's really... It's kind of...
It's really quite sick,
isn't it?
JP: There's a list
at Homeland Security,
and, on that list
is maybe a dozen museums
that had Latchford pieces.
And so, The Met was in New York.
I was based in New York.
That would be
the next one to go after.
JP: There are some
clear signs of looting
and it's something
that we look for
when we're poring over evidence.
A statue will get
broken into smaller parts,
makes it easier to ship.
Soil deposits are
a thing that we look for.
Anything that's
exposed to the elements,
you'll start to see
some corrosion.
We have security
on the front steps.
- Uh.
- Oh, no, I'm sorry.
- Southeast Asia.
- Oh, I'm sorry, Southeast Asia.
- Go there.
- Ah.
There's so many pieces here
that we have records on.
I don't even know
where to begin.
So, this headless
female figure, we, um,
had the opportunity to speak
with one of the looters, um,
in Cambodia,
and he admitted his role
in the removal of this piece
and transfer across the border
into Thailand.
And, on the condition report
for this piece,
it notes burial soil,
um, found on the piece.
For this bronze
Avalokitesvara, um,
we know that it arrived
heavily damaged
from The Met's own
internal reporting.
We have,
from Latchford's E-mail,
source photos,
um, source photos showing that
the piece was in the condition
in which it was found.
It should be a no-brainer
for this one to go back,
um, like so many others.
JP: Evidence has been
presented to The Met
that a number of the pieces
that they have were looted.
Straight up looted,
um, eyewitness testimony
from some of the looters
that were involved.
Brad: You know,
The Metropolitan
kept saying to me,
"Show me your evidence."
And we kept asking them
for their provenance documents.
They kept saying,
"Look at our website."
So, you know,
there's hardly anything there.
There are some records
on some pieces, where,
they have two conflicting
pieces of provenance
for the same piece.
In their records!
Like, "Here's where
we got the piece from."
And then,
a completely different story,
which contradicts that one.
To ignore the issue?
I think it's disrespectful.
Performing at The Met,
it was a form of
quiet or silent protest
to bring attention
to the issues
of looted antiquity.
Excuse me.
Okay, okay.
Okay, thank you.
JP: This is The Metropolitan
Museum of Art.
Um, I'm more disappointed
than I'm... than I'm angry.
It's The Met.
Like, "What are you doing?"
JP: The Met Gala tickets
are $75,000 each.
I know nothing else
of the Met Gala
except that Kim Kardashian
posed in front of
an Egyptian sarcophagus
made of gold,
and we seized it.
[interviewer laughing]
[laughs]
Luke: The old British museums
used to argue that,
"Well, if we didn't
save these?"
[inhales sharply]
You know, "Good Lord!"
"You know, they would have
just been lost."
Which, probably isn't true,
but it becomes a justification
for them basically
handling stolen goods.
Voice Actor [Douglas]:
"Admittedly,
"these things were moonlighted
"out of Cambodia
and wound up somewhere else,
"but had they not been, they
would likely have been shot up
"for target practice
by the Khmer Rouge."
My bicycle isn't
very well looked after by me
because I think I leave it
outside all the time,
but someone else always
brings their bicycle inside,
and therefore, it's in
much better condition.
That's not a reason for that
other person to own my bicycle.
Malia: Museums were a little bit
easier for us to investigate,
the museum items.
Private collectors, it's... it's
a whole different world.
They're basically a black box.
Malia: Brad just sent me
this very discreet picture.
"What do you know about this?"
And I said, "Oh, my gosh!
"All of these Khmer antiquities
"sitting in this
billionaire's living room."
Malia:
"Where did this come from?"
So, we started trying
to... to search.
We found the name of the street.
We found some details
about the couple.
But then we were able
to kind of triangulate,
based on other
real estate listings
that had other
similar pictures that matched,
that this was actually
the Lindemanns.
[camera shutter clicking]
JP: We have
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
and now we have the Lindemanns.
In each of those,
the number of pieces they had
was far greater
than we thought going in.
Malia:
George Lindemann Senior
was the patriarch
of this family.
He and his wife Frayda, where
they have tons of properties.
They have tons of companies.
JP: Access to the looters puts
a spotlight on the Lindemanns
because the looters are
referencing specific pieces,
and we sat down with Blue Tiger,
showed the images.
So we started
trying to track down
any other photographs
we could find
of other properties,
including this 2021
Architectural Digest spread,
which we realized
was Sloan Lindemann's.
It was this beautiful courtyard
that had these pedestals on it
that were empty.
Combing through
Peter Marino's website,
who's the architect
who worked with the Lindemanns,
and they found
an identical photo,
except these pedestals
were not empty.
They had heads on them.
[laughs]
And they had these Khmer heads,
these really beautiful
Khmer heads.
We have the picture
with the heads
and then we have
the same beautiful courtyard
with no heads,
them actually photoshopped out.
To me, that's all
very suspicious.
JP: The Lindemanns
amassed a collection
valued around $35 million.
People who have that much money,
I think they want to be special.
They want to have
something special.
They want to have something
that nobody else has.
JP: They just weren't
as cooperative, but,
ultimately, it came down to
"You have a choice to make.
"We can go the easy way
or the hard way."
JP: Latchford certainly felt
like he was untouchable,
and so, you might have to wonder
why he thought so.
[camera shutter clicking]
[people chattering]
Anonymous Art Collector:
One-track minded.
He had very good friends
in high places.
He was protected.
And, uh, he wouldn't
tolerate any competition.
I got an E-mail
from Douglas saying
he'd like to catch up with me
at the National Museum
in Phnom Penh.
They gave him
Cambodian citizenship.
The deputy prime minister
at the time
conferred Cambodian
citizenship on Douglas
because he donated
so much to that museum.
Actor: "Deputy
Prime Minister Sok An came,
"made a speech,
and gave me a Khmer title,
"a royal title."
He came.
He'd lied to the Cambodians.
He flashed around
a lot of money.
I think he tricked them.
Luke: Well,
he's got his bodybuilders,
He's got his lawsuits.
He's got his lawyers.
He's got the Bunker family.
He had his addresses in London,
museums around the world.
He's got everything he wanted.
With the bodybuilders
came the bodyguards.
You know,
they... they had a... a reputation
that scared a lot of people.
Their imagination has gone wild.
They've seen too many
Indiana Jones films.
[camera shutter clicking]
JP: Nancy Wiener was huge
for the Latchford case.
JP: She was an art dealer
in Manhattan,
and she specialized in Asian and
Southeast Asian antiquities.
She was already being
looked at by Homeland Security.
JP:
In March of 2016,
her gallery's raided and
she's subsequently arrested.
JP: Having access
to Nancy's records
really is
the breakthrough moment
in the case against Latchford.
Blew the door open.
Actor: "I have just been offered
this Sri Lankan bronze head,
"height 18 centimetres."
"I've compared it
with one I have.
"They are looking for the body,
no luck so far.
"All they found last week
were two landmines!!
"What price would you be
interested to buy it at?
"Let me know as
I'll have to bargain for it."
"I've got one
fresh out of the ground."
"We're cleaning the dirt off."
"Hold on to your hat.
"Just been offered
this 56 centimetre Buddha.
"Just excavated."
"It's still
across the border, but...
[laughs]
"WOW."
JP:
This is smuggling 101.
The looter finds it,
sells it to Latchford.
Latchford's gonna turn around,
sell it in Manhattan
to... to an art dealer.
Um, for... for an investigator,
you don't often get
like this smoking gun,
you know, kinda material.
We used the documentation
that we received from Nancy
to indict Latchford.
Conspiracy to commit wire fraud,
substantive wire fraud,
and smuggling,
conspiracy to commit an offense
against the United States,
entry of goods
by false statements,
and one count of
aggravated identity theft.
At the same time he's indicted,
doctors find him
to be incompetent,
and not long after that,
his health continued to decline
and, um, and he passed.
I would have liked for him
to have faced his day in court
and answer for the crimes
that he committed.
Douglas Lastchford's family
made an enormous
amount of money from this,
and they continue
to hold onto that money.
JP: Julia Latchford
is Douglas Latchford's daughter.
Julia signed an agreement
with Cambodia to turn over,
you know, hundreds of pieces
in the Latchford estate.
You have the opportunity
to come out smelling like roses
and unload
all this dirty material,
so I think for her
was a no-brainer.
We had to go through a process
of working with
the family representative,
so I went to London to drive
with him to the countryside.
So, I went with him
and we drove out to a pub.
I took a photo of the pub,
you know, when I walked up,
just...
..just thinking
if I disappeared,
somebody could check
my iPhone for that photo.
Um, and, uh... [laughs]
We went in to have lunch
and Julia was there,
and then she's like, "Okay,
you ready to see the gold?"
She opens the trunk of the car.
The trunk of the car.
And she's got
cardboard boxes in there,
four cardboard boxes,
and it's the Angkorian jewels.
It's the crowns,
and the bracelets,
and the armlets
from the Angkorian Empire.
But she went and just,
you know, opened everything,
and held it up, and showing me,
"Oh, this is an earring.
This is a bracelet."
Um, and I was deeply saddened
and mortified that the treasures
of this great ancient empire
were in the back trunk of a car
a couple hours
outside of London.
[camera shutter clicking]
[camera shutter clicking]
[camera shutter clicking]
Brad: People can still
do something good
even when they've done something
horrible in their life.
But, you know, when they did
that when they were kids,
they were in
a very difficult position.
Brad: I think it's
a beautiful story of redemption.
It was a surprise to me
that all of a sudden
The Met just announced that
"We're gonna return this batch
of their Cambodian antiquities."
Brad: The Met
have given back these 14,
by and large
because they know that they...
they are connected
to Latchford.
If they thought that
these were not stolen,
I think they would
never have given them back.
You know, they have done
something unprecedented,
giving back so many
to a country like Cambodia.
But there's no...
There's no admission.
There's no nothing.
I think it's wrong.
I believe that they know.
They know the background.
They know why
these are blood antiquities.
[thundering]
Brad:
It's raining so hard.
Is it a sign of joy?
Is it tears of joy?
[thundering]
[whirring]
[chattering]
JP: Having visited
the different temples
and seeing the empty spots,
and seeing everything
that was missing,
it just made me realize that
there's a lot of work to do,
and there are a lot of pieces
out there still.
[chains rattling]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
Sophiline Cheam Shapiro:
You know, Cambodia,
we live through
war and genocide.
You know, we are not all that.
Sophiline:
It's hard to move on
if you focus on
the negative side of life.
Sophiline: There was time
of many century
that we had built
a great civilization.
Sophiline: They have gone,
but their work stay.
Sophiline: Past, present,
and future can connect.
[birds and insects calling]
Pen Moni Makara:
To us Cambodians,
the descendants
of the Khmer civilization,
each of these artifacts
has special meaning.
Pen:
It's a symbol of protection.
Pen:
They are symbol of unity.
Pen:
It's a symbol of our soul.
Pen: Looting
and illicit trafficking
is why our nation was broken.
JP Labbat: These are bigger
than just, you know,
regular run-of-the-mill cases.
These artifacts,
once they're gone,
they're gone forever.
When I walk through
a museum today
and I look at those statues,
I just know that
there's so much history
that the people looking at
those statues don't wanna know.
Thanaren Than:
People lost their life.
People lost
their part of the body,
their family member,
try to get the sculpture out.
[men yelling]
Tess Davis:
In a very short time period,
they fell victim
to war profiteers.
They fell victim to greed.
JP: The networks behind them
were very advanced.
The smuggling routes
were complicated.
These are
a difficult investigation.
Tess: The illicit trade
in art and antiquities
is funding organized crime.
It's funding violent extremism.
Death threats,
calls in the morning
at three o'clock.
People have families.
They got kids.
You know, you don't
put that stuff at risk.
Voice Actor [Douglas]:
"My daughter
"and my bodybuilder chef
"talked to two priests,
independent of one another.
"Both of the priests indicated
that in some previous life
"I was Khmer
and that what I collect
"had once belonged to me."
[camera shutter clicking]
Malia Politzer:
You know, he would take people
like the Lindemanns,
who were these billionaires.
Martin Lerner, who, at the time,
was the curator
of The Metropolitan
Museum of Art,
to these remote jungle sites
and then having someone like
Latchford show them around
and have so much knowledge
about all of these items
must have been very exciting.
Angela Chiu: There was
a British stone conservator.
Simon Warrack is his name.
Malia: He had been working at
this beautiful site of Koh Ker,
which used to be
the capital of the Khmer Empire.
Malia: The statues there
are very, very distinct
and very different.
This is the site
of this beautiful piece
that they call
"the Duryodhana."
And then, he spotted
two pieces of stone
in the ground.
These blocks just had
the feet attached
and the body
was nowhere in sight.
This is pretty much
where they were
when... when we saw the feet
the first time.
And since then,
they've excavated this trench.
Angela: He happened
to be in a library,
and he saw a statue,
and he could see
by the position of the legs.
He said, "You know,
this kind of looks like
"it might fit
one of those pedestals."
And sure enough,
he kind of lined them
and he said, like,
"You know, I think this is...
"this is matching."
Angela:
A few years later,
Eric Bourdonneau,
a French researcher,
he was able to do
computer modeling
to show that that statue,
said to be owned
by a private collection,
matched the pedestal.
Angela:
Sotheby's put that statue
on the cover of its auction
of Southeast Asian art
for an estimated value
of two to three million dollars.
Cambodia then sent a letter
to Sotheby's saying,
"Don't sell it, because,
you know, the feet are found.
"This statue
belongs to Cambodia."
Within hours to spare,
this auction was stopped.
[birds calling]
Malia: US Authorities said,
"Look, like this is looted.
"We wanna return it
to Cambodia."
And Sotheby's said,
"No, no, no, no, no.
"We wanna sell it and we have
the right to sell it."
And so they, in the search
for the providence,
reached out to Emma Bunker,
who also was a very close friend
of Douglas Latchford's.
A lot of the E-mails
between Emma Bunker
and Douglas Latchford
were very illuminating,
and it was clear that he
definitely was the first owner
because they were then
trying to cover for him.
You know, I think that kind of
made him a person of interest.
I don't know where they imagined
that I own the piece,
but let me confirm to you first
that I did not own the piece.
I had nothing to do with it.
So, the Pandora Papers
was this cache
of nearly 12 million,
um, financial documents
from offshore secrecy havens
that showed how wealthy people,
and also sometimes criminals,
conceal their assets.
I ended up working on
the Latchford one,
and so I just was
basically going through
every single document
I could find.
Was able to see,
"Oh, this guy Latchford
is pretty interesting."
Malia:
"Where did the antiquities go
"and where did the money go?"
And we were trying to track
both of those things.
JP: Any time I would see a story
about law enforcement, or crime,
but in particular,
like the federal agents,
I just knew that that's
what I needed to be doing.
It was just like a calling,
and I'm like,
"That's what I'm gonna do."
JP: I hear rumblings
of an agent in our office
who's recovering
ancient artifacts,
so I sought him out,
and there's been
no looking back ever since.
It's been a wild ride.
JP: Whenever we start
an antiquities case,
we approach it from two aspects.
"Can we prove that
the piece is dirty?"
And then, "Can we prove that
someone committed a crime?"
"Did someone knowingly
smuggle something illicit?"
Two aspects,
the piece itself,
and then whether
someone broke the law.
I knew Latchford was dirty.
What I was trying
to figure out is "How involved?"
"How dirty was Latchford?"
[camera shutter clicking]
In 2016, I led Operation
Indochina Peninsula Plunder,
which was the investigation
into Douglas Latchford
and his network.
If you're going to allege
that a particular artifact
originates in a certain temple,
who's going to know that better
than people there on the ground?
[horn beeping]
My name's Bradley Gordon.
I'm officially appointed
to advise the ministry
on repatriations
of stolen antiquities.
Brad Gordon:
I walk into a museum,
I feel like, oh, you know,
"Do they have my picture behind,
you know, somewhere?"
And they, "Brad Gordon,
don't let this guy in."
The DOJ said to me,
"We're working on a case
involving Sotheby's.
You know, "You know about
Latchford, right?"
If you look at Cambodia,
and you're considering
the number of temples
that these guys raided,
the number of crime sites,
the number of statues,
it's an enormous amount.
Brad: You know, we were hired
to find the looting network,
track down villagers,
track down witnesses.
You know, in the beginning,
I didn't quite know where
Latchford fit into the picture.
[boat engine humming]
Brad:
And so, with Naren,
the two of us
went over the country,
interviewed many, many people.
People were terrified.
They were afraid.
You transform a piece of rock
into a piece of art
and then you also
embed spirituality,
sense of divinity,
in that piece of rock.
[birds calling]
[stream babbling]
Blue Tiger's extraordinary.
[laughs]
You know, he... he was
a trusted lieutenant
of Lion,
um, you know,
the head of the gang.
Brad: You know,
he has helped us tremendously,
given what was taken out
of Prasat Krachap.
As soon as I heard about the
statues that came out of there,
I knew that this was
an extremely significant temple,
and Blue Tiger's, um...
was there and participated in
the removal of the statues.
[gun firing]
[men yelling]
So, Khmer Rouge
was a communist movement.
Um, they... they started
guerrilla warfare
from the early 60s.
You know, in the 60s,
President Nixon
and his secretary of state,
Kissinger, they bombed Cambodia
without telling congress.
Brad: More bombs
were dropped on Cambodia
than any time before
in mankind's history.
[bombs booming]
Brad: It definitely
destabilized the country.
There's no question about it.
[bombs booming]
Brad: The Khmer Rouge
were empowered by the bombing
because so many people
in the countryside
joined the Khmer Rouge.
Reporter:
April, 1975,
Khmer Rouge soldiers
are surging into Phnom Penh,
Cambodia's capital.
[flames crackling]
Reporter: Widespread panic
permeates the streets
as the new government
empties the city,
marching the population
into the countryside.
Angela: They basically
tore apart all the traditions
and institutions
of Cambodian life.
So, they tore apart families,
you know, schools,
uh, you know, the government,
Buddhism.
All these things
they... they tried to destroy.
Angela:
I think they've estimated
between one
and three million people died
from either being murdered,
or from famine, or illness.
After the Khmer Rouge,
uh, fell, then, you know,
all these people who had been
separated from their villages,
from their families,
they didn't know
who was alive or who was dead.
You know,
they had no income, had to...
A desperate...
A desperate struggle
for survival.
There was all kinds of looting
of artifacts that took place.
Will Korner:
In conflict and crisis zones,
you quite often have
a breakdown of the social order.
You have opportunity
for criminals,
but also,
people we wouldn't
necessarily think of
as criminals,
to take advantage
of that situation,
maybe to feed their families.
JP: In 2016, Latchford, he's
just a blip on the radar screen.
So, my first question,
"What is Latchford about?"
Malia: Latchford was born
in the British Raj, in India,
and then went
to boarding school.
And then, when he was
about 20, he moved to Bangkok
and then he just fell in love
with Khmer culture.
Latchford had
a reputation for hanging out
with the museum glitterati,
the society people,
and he was a very high-profile
character around Bangkok.
Voice actor [Douglas]:
"I was at dinner one evening
"with Franois Duhau de Berenx,
who was an interior decorator.
"Franois showed me
a stone female torso
"and it immediately
had an effect on me
"that would change my life.
"I was smitten,
and could from then on
"think of nothing
but this wonderful torso."
Malia:
He fell in love with it
and he started
collecting Khmer antiquity
at this voracious speed.
Alan Parkhouse: One of my jobs
as a journalist in Bangkok
was to write a story
about Douglas Latchford,
and, uh, he showed me
through his place,
and every little nook
and cranny of that apartment
had some ancient artifact
sitting on it,
pretty much like
you'd see in a museum,
but these were sitting on
mantelpieces and shelves.
You could see he had a deep
affection for those pieces,
probably more
than he did for people.
Alan: The fortune teller
had told him that
he had once been Khmer
in a previous life,
and that's why he loved
all these Khmer statues.
Angela:
On the public side,
he tried to present himself
as this adventurous scholar.
So, this is kind of
drawing on those colonial motif
of a very heroic European man
who goes into the jungle
and discovers lost cities,
somebody who rescued
these Khmer artifacts
that had been lost
to the jungle.
Alan: Douglas owned
the entire apartment block
that he lived in.
He kept the whole floor
for himself
and there was
very heavy security there.
I remember
walking up to the window
of the security guard there and,
and there being a number
of other security guards
watching me
from inside the gate,
all bodybuilders.
Voice Actor [Douglas]: "One of
the things I do as a hobby
"is to help the Thai
Bodybuilding Association.
"I was elected as president
"for Asia earlier this year.
Luke Hunt: His love of
the Thai bodybuilding,
so we're told,
had more to do
with his lifestyle than, uh,
anything to do with, uh...
[sighs]
- -sport?
For the longest time,
he was just this, um,
kind of quirky, strange, like,
dinner conversation companion.
It took a long time
for them to realize
who exactly this man was.
JP: When I went and
interviewed some of the looters,
they talk about
how they actually met with
Douglas Latchford.
So, you know,
he has direct communication
and direct access
to the looters.
[birds calling]
JP:
We sat down with Blue Tiger,
showed the images of artifacts
that we were still hunting.
He was able to,
and another looter was able to,
identify some pieces that they
were directly responsible
for having taken
out of the country,
which was, which is,
you know, so rare.
The entire interview
was a... a "wow moment."
I was... I had my eyes wide open
and my jaw dropped the entire
time we were talking to them,
because who, what,
where, when, how, right?
That's what you need
to... to prove a case,
and, they...
We have that
from the mouth of... of...
for people involved.
The Skanda on Peacock statue,
which sold for $1.5 million,
I was able to
successfully track it down
and I got it
returned to Cambodia.
And then your hunt continues,
because there's so many of them.
He's selling statues
for one, 1.5 apiece.
We know Shiva and Skanda,
he tried to sell for 25 million.
Yeah, $25 million.
And he had another statue,
the Durga
that's going back to Vietnam,
he tried to sell
for $34 million.
[bird and bugs calling]
JP: Once I realized that
Latchford's a bigger player,
you know,
Latchford becomes his own board.
Who are his sources?
His sources are
the looters in Cambodia.
Who is he supplying?
Numerous entities.
They're going to supply museums.
They're going
to supply gallery owners.
They're going...
going to supply
private collectors.
JP:
Before you know it,
you have so many names
on the board.
It was simply a matter of
"Okay, what's next?"
Angela: You know,
among all the many people
who aided and abetted
Douglas Latchford,
Emma Bunker is probably
the most important person.
JP: Emma Bunker was
a major co-conspirator
of Douglas Latchford's.
Because Emma Bunker was attached
to the Denver Art Museum,
Latchford could introduce
pieces to a major museum
and have Emma Bunker vouch for
the integrity of the pieces
for the purpose of laundering
so that he could turn around
and resell it using the name
of the Denver Art Museum.
"Oh, this piece
was just... just shown
"at the Denver Art Museum."
So, no one would ever think that
there was a problem with it.
JP: Um, there's a number
of Latchford pieces
that have an Ian Donaldson
reference in the provenance.
Angela: Some of them
were supposedly written
after Ian Donaldson
had already died.
It's clearly letters that
were cooked up by Latchford.
Angela:
I mean, how cynical is that,
that you... you use
your dead friend's name
and, you know, imitate,
try to fake a signature
for your dead friend?
It's really... It's kind of...
It's really quite sick,
isn't it?
JP: There's a list
at Homeland Security,
and, on that list
is maybe a dozen museums
that had Latchford pieces.
And so, The Met was in New York.
I was based in New York.
That would be
the next one to go after.
JP: There are some
clear signs of looting
and it's something
that we look for
when we're poring over evidence.
A statue will get
broken into smaller parts,
makes it easier to ship.
Soil deposits are
a thing that we look for.
Anything that's
exposed to the elements,
you'll start to see
some corrosion.
We have security
on the front steps.
- Uh.
- Oh, no, I'm sorry.
- Southeast Asia.
- Oh, I'm sorry, Southeast Asia.
- Go there.
- Ah.
There's so many pieces here
that we have records on.
I don't even know
where to begin.
So, this headless
female figure, we, um,
had the opportunity to speak
with one of the looters, um,
in Cambodia,
and he admitted his role
in the removal of this piece
and transfer across the border
into Thailand.
And, on the condition report
for this piece,
it notes burial soil,
um, found on the piece.
For this bronze
Avalokitesvara, um,
we know that it arrived
heavily damaged
from The Met's own
internal reporting.
We have,
from Latchford's E-mail,
source photos,
um, source photos showing that
the piece was in the condition
in which it was found.
It should be a no-brainer
for this one to go back,
um, like so many others.
JP: Evidence has been
presented to The Met
that a number of the pieces
that they have were looted.
Straight up looted,
um, eyewitness testimony
from some of the looters
that were involved.
Brad: You know,
The Metropolitan
kept saying to me,
"Show me your evidence."
And we kept asking them
for their provenance documents.
They kept saying,
"Look at our website."
So, you know,
there's hardly anything there.
There are some records
on some pieces, where,
they have two conflicting
pieces of provenance
for the same piece.
In their records!
Like, "Here's where
we got the piece from."
And then,
a completely different story,
which contradicts that one.
To ignore the issue?
I think it's disrespectful.
Performing at The Met,
it was a form of
quiet or silent protest
to bring attention
to the issues
of looted antiquity.
Excuse me.
Okay, okay.
Okay, thank you.
JP: This is The Metropolitan
Museum of Art.
Um, I'm more disappointed
than I'm... than I'm angry.
It's The Met.
Like, "What are you doing?"
JP: The Met Gala tickets
are $75,000 each.
I know nothing else
of the Met Gala
except that Kim Kardashian
posed in front of
an Egyptian sarcophagus
made of gold,
and we seized it.
[interviewer laughing]
[laughs]
Luke: The old British museums
used to argue that,
"Well, if we didn't
save these?"
[inhales sharply]
You know, "Good Lord!"
"You know, they would have
just been lost."
Which, probably isn't true,
but it becomes a justification
for them basically
handling stolen goods.
Voice Actor [Douglas]:
"Admittedly,
"these things were moonlighted
"out of Cambodia
and wound up somewhere else,
"but had they not been, they
would likely have been shot up
"for target practice
by the Khmer Rouge."
My bicycle isn't
very well looked after by me
because I think I leave it
outside all the time,
but someone else always
brings their bicycle inside,
and therefore, it's in
much better condition.
That's not a reason for that
other person to own my bicycle.
Malia: Museums were a little bit
easier for us to investigate,
the museum items.
Private collectors, it's... it's
a whole different world.
They're basically a black box.
Malia: Brad just sent me
this very discreet picture.
"What do you know about this?"
And I said, "Oh, my gosh!
"All of these Khmer antiquities
"sitting in this
billionaire's living room."
Malia:
"Where did this come from?"
So, we started trying
to... to search.
We found the name of the street.
We found some details
about the couple.
But then we were able
to kind of triangulate,
based on other
real estate listings
that had other
similar pictures that matched,
that this was actually
the Lindemanns.
[camera shutter clicking]
JP: We have
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
and now we have the Lindemanns.
In each of those,
the number of pieces they had
was far greater
than we thought going in.
Malia:
George Lindemann Senior
was the patriarch
of this family.
He and his wife Frayda, where
they have tons of properties.
They have tons of companies.
JP: Access to the looters puts
a spotlight on the Lindemanns
because the looters are
referencing specific pieces,
and we sat down with Blue Tiger,
showed the images.
So we started
trying to track down
any other photographs
we could find
of other properties,
including this 2021
Architectural Digest spread,
which we realized
was Sloan Lindemann's.
It was this beautiful courtyard
that had these pedestals on it
that were empty.
Combing through
Peter Marino's website,
who's the architect
who worked with the Lindemanns,
and they found
an identical photo,
except these pedestals
were not empty.
They had heads on them.
[laughs]
And they had these Khmer heads,
these really beautiful
Khmer heads.
We have the picture
with the heads
and then we have
the same beautiful courtyard
with no heads,
them actually photoshopped out.
To me, that's all
very suspicious.
JP: The Lindemanns
amassed a collection
valued around $35 million.
People who have that much money,
I think they want to be special.
They want to have
something special.
They want to have something
that nobody else has.
JP: They just weren't
as cooperative, but,
ultimately, it came down to
"You have a choice to make.
"We can go the easy way
or the hard way."
JP: Latchford certainly felt
like he was untouchable,
and so, you might have to wonder
why he thought so.
[camera shutter clicking]
[people chattering]
Anonymous Art Collector:
One-track minded.
He had very good friends
in high places.
He was protected.
And, uh, he wouldn't
tolerate any competition.
I got an E-mail
from Douglas saying
he'd like to catch up with me
at the National Museum
in Phnom Penh.
They gave him
Cambodian citizenship.
The deputy prime minister
at the time
conferred Cambodian
citizenship on Douglas
because he donated
so much to that museum.
Actor: "Deputy
Prime Minister Sok An came,
"made a speech,
and gave me a Khmer title,
"a royal title."
He came.
He'd lied to the Cambodians.
He flashed around
a lot of money.
I think he tricked them.
Luke: Well,
he's got his bodybuilders,
He's got his lawsuits.
He's got his lawyers.
He's got the Bunker family.
He had his addresses in London,
museums around the world.
He's got everything he wanted.
With the bodybuilders
came the bodyguards.
You know,
they... they had a... a reputation
that scared a lot of people.
Their imagination has gone wild.
They've seen too many
Indiana Jones films.
[camera shutter clicking]
JP: Nancy Wiener was huge
for the Latchford case.
JP: She was an art dealer
in Manhattan,
and she specialized in Asian and
Southeast Asian antiquities.
She was already being
looked at by Homeland Security.
JP:
In March of 2016,
her gallery's raided and
she's subsequently arrested.
JP: Having access
to Nancy's records
really is
the breakthrough moment
in the case against Latchford.
Blew the door open.
Actor: "I have just been offered
this Sri Lankan bronze head,
"height 18 centimetres."
"I've compared it
with one I have.
"They are looking for the body,
no luck so far.
"All they found last week
were two landmines!!
"What price would you be
interested to buy it at?
"Let me know as
I'll have to bargain for it."
"I've got one
fresh out of the ground."
"We're cleaning the dirt off."
"Hold on to your hat.
"Just been offered
this 56 centimetre Buddha.
"Just excavated."
"It's still
across the border, but...
[laughs]
"WOW."
JP:
This is smuggling 101.
The looter finds it,
sells it to Latchford.
Latchford's gonna turn around,
sell it in Manhattan
to... to an art dealer.
Um, for... for an investigator,
you don't often get
like this smoking gun,
you know, kinda material.
We used the documentation
that we received from Nancy
to indict Latchford.
Conspiracy to commit wire fraud,
substantive wire fraud,
and smuggling,
conspiracy to commit an offense
against the United States,
entry of goods
by false statements,
and one count of
aggravated identity theft.
At the same time he's indicted,
doctors find him
to be incompetent,
and not long after that,
his health continued to decline
and, um, and he passed.
I would have liked for him
to have faced his day in court
and answer for the crimes
that he committed.
Douglas Lastchford's family
made an enormous
amount of money from this,
and they continue
to hold onto that money.
JP: Julia Latchford
is Douglas Latchford's daughter.
Julia signed an agreement
with Cambodia to turn over,
you know, hundreds of pieces
in the Latchford estate.
You have the opportunity
to come out smelling like roses
and unload
all this dirty material,
so I think for her
was a no-brainer.
We had to go through a process
of working with
the family representative,
so I went to London to drive
with him to the countryside.
So, I went with him
and we drove out to a pub.
I took a photo of the pub,
you know, when I walked up,
just...
..just thinking
if I disappeared,
somebody could check
my iPhone for that photo.
Um, and, uh... [laughs]
We went in to have lunch
and Julia was there,
and then she's like, "Okay,
you ready to see the gold?"
She opens the trunk of the car.
The trunk of the car.
And she's got
cardboard boxes in there,
four cardboard boxes,
and it's the Angkorian jewels.
It's the crowns,
and the bracelets,
and the armlets
from the Angkorian Empire.
But she went and just,
you know, opened everything,
and held it up, and showing me,
"Oh, this is an earring.
This is a bracelet."
Um, and I was deeply saddened
and mortified that the treasures
of this great ancient empire
were in the back trunk of a car
a couple hours
outside of London.
[camera shutter clicking]
[camera shutter clicking]
[camera shutter clicking]
Brad: People can still
do something good
even when they've done something
horrible in their life.
But, you know, when they did
that when they were kids,
they were in
a very difficult position.
Brad: I think it's
a beautiful story of redemption.
It was a surprise to me
that all of a sudden
The Met just announced that
"We're gonna return this batch
of their Cambodian antiquities."
Brad: The Met
have given back these 14,
by and large
because they know that they...
they are connected
to Latchford.
If they thought that
these were not stolen,
I think they would
never have given them back.
You know, they have done
something unprecedented,
giving back so many
to a country like Cambodia.
But there's no...
There's no admission.
There's no nothing.
I think it's wrong.
I believe that they know.
They know the background.
They know why
these are blood antiquities.
[thundering]
Brad:
It's raining so hard.
Is it a sign of joy?
Is it tears of joy?
[thundering]
[whirring]
[chattering]
JP: Having visited
the different temples
and seeing the empty spots,
and seeing everything
that was missing,
it just made me realize that
there's a lot of work to do,
and there are a lot of pieces
out there still.
[chains rattling]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
[chanting Khmer]
Sophiline Cheam Shapiro:
You know, Cambodia,
we live through
war and genocide.
You know, we are not all that.
Sophiline:
It's hard to move on
if you focus on
the negative side of life.
Sophiline: There was time
of many century
that we had built
a great civilization.
Sophiline: They have gone,
but their work stay.
Sophiline: Past, present,
and future can connect.