The Metropolitan Museum of Art to return more than a dozen ancient artworks following alleged links to looted art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art will return more than a dozen Southeast Asian sculptures after they were linked to a late art dealer accused of trafficking artifacts looted from the region, according to the museum and the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.
New York City’s Metropolitan Museum said in a statement it has initiated the return of 14 artworks to Cambodia and two to Thailand that were tied to Douglas Latchford, a British antiquities dealer and leading scholar on Khmer art.
Latchford was indicted in 2019 for “orchestrating a multi-year scheme to sell looted Cambodian antiquities on the international art market,” the US attorney’s office said in a statement. The indictment was dismissed following Latchford’s death in 2020.
