Investigators from the U.S. attorney’s office met with officials of the Metropolitan Museum of Art earlier this month to discuss whether relics in the famed museum’s collection had been stolen from ancient sites in Cambodia.
Museum officials said that “new information” about some pieces in their collection spurred them to reach out to officials in the Southern District of New York. They declined to describe what facts precipitated the meeting, which occurred about two weeks ago.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Washington Post reported three weeks ago that the Met holds 12 pieces once owned or brokered by Douglas Latchford, a man prosecutors said was involved in decades of trafficking in looted artifacts. Another seven pieces at the Met came to the museum through his associates.
