CAMBODIA — Julia Latchford, daughter of antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford, returned his collection of Cambodian artifacts to the Cambodian government following a meeting with American lawyer Brad Gordon in the U.K. Gordon, hired by the Cambodian government, obtained ancient Khmer jewelry from Tupperware boxes in the trunk of a car in a parking lot. The Latchford family agreed to return the entire collection.

The return of the artifacts culminated investigations into Douglas Latchford. Prosecutors for the Southern District of New York had built a case against Latchford for the theft of Cambodian antiquities. Douglas Latchford died before he could be extradited from Thailand to face trial.

Gordon refers to looted Cambodian antiquities as "blood antiquities." He said, "People were killed over these antiquities." He questions the process by which items were acquired, stating, "Whenever I see a statue, I think, 'Who died to get this out of the ground, or get this out of a temple, and to move it here?'" Gordon took a television correspondent to a remote temple on Sandak Mountain, where pedestals and severed feet of statues were found. Gordon believes the jewelry was once worn by the kings and queens of an ancient Khmer Empire.

Gordon met a former Khmer Rouge child soldier named Toek Tik, who told investigators where the looted pieces went, leading them to Douglas Latchford. Toek Tik described finding hundreds of jars at the Sandak Mountain site filled with jewelry, including crowns, necklaces, and earrings. Toek Tik recognized many of the pieces from Douglas Latchford's book, "Khmer Gold: Gifts of the Gods," as items he had looted. Gordon and an investigator compared reliefs on Angkor Wat temple walls to jewelry featured in Latchford's book.

The returned jewels were welcomed home in a ceremony with traditional blessings by Buddhist monks. Cambodians in attendance saw the ancient crowns, rings, earrings, and necklaces in person for the first time. Gordon remarked on the feeling of the moment when accepting the pieces, saying, "I think it's restoration of national pride." He added, "They went through genocide."

Why It Matters

The return of the artifacts addresses the historical loss of cultural heritage from Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge, a radical communist group, took power in Cambodia in 1975, a period during which approximately 2 million Cambodians were killed or starved to death before the regime lost power in 1979. The recovery of these artifacts signifies a complex process of reclaiming national heritage and history following periods of upheaval.