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How one man pulled off the greatest art heist in history – the looting of an entire nation.

This is the story the art world doesn’t want told.

For 50 years, Douglas Latchford (Fig. 1) was the world’s premier expert on Cambodian art, supplying priceless statues to Western museums and rich collectors. But his fame masked a dirty secret. Douglas had colluded with the Khmer Rouge (Fig. 2), a genocidal regime, to loot Cambodia’s entire cultural heritage.

As the country descended into bloodshed, Douglas stole almost everything.

A network of art world cronies were on hand to help him sell these blood statues (Fig. 3), including a senior curator at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. When a band of art sleuths get on their case, Douglas and his co-conspirators mount a rearguard action to save themselves.

Unlike the Elgin Marbles, and other brewing controversies over stolen art, our story isn’t ancient history.

This tale is happening now.

Latest Episode

Episode 4: Art Sleuths

A British conservator comes across a pair of stone feet in a Cambodian jungle temple. His sleuthing leads him to deduce the feet belong to a statue in a U.S. museum and the trail ends at Douglas, the most serious scrutiny yet. Emma Bunker helps Douglas create fake documents to cover up his looting. But when a Cambodian statue goes on sale in Sotheby’s in New York, Douglas is tied up in a lawsuit and his name splashed in the newspapers for the first time.

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