Douglas Latchford knew as soon as he saw the picture that he had something that didn’t belong to him.
The photograph, taken in 1939 by French photographer Henri Promentier, showed a headless statue with clasped hands, deep in the Cambodian jungle. The same artifact, Latchford realized when he saw it about four months ago, was sitting—minus the arms—in his London home.
On Thursday, Latchford handed the half-meter-high sandstone sculpture back over to the National Museum in a ceremony at the museum attended by Minister of Culture Princess Norodom Bopha Devi. Latchford, a collector of Asian antique art who lives in London and Bangkok, where he owns a pharmaceutical company, said he bought it in 1984 from a now-defunct London dealer for about $70,000.
Once he discovered its provenance, Latchford said, “I felt it should go back to Cambodia.”
Dated by the dealer as belonging to the late-10th-century Pre Rup period, it is now thought to come from the early-10th-century Koh Ker period, when a usurper king temporarily moved the Khmer capital from Angkor to Koh Ker, in present-day Preah Vihear province. The statue depicts a hunchbacked figure resting on one knee, wearing traditional Khmer “chong khbun” pants. Museum Director Khun Samen said it would have had a fierce expression on its face to protect the temple it guarded from intruders.
“It is the same function as a lion—like a bodyguard,” he said.
Princess Bopha Devi thanked Latchford for returning the artifact, saying it was the first time a private collector had donated a piece of national heritage.
Thursday’s ceremony also marked the return of 178 statues from the Royal Palace, which had been keeping them since 1993 because the museum was not considered safe, according to Ministry of Culture Undersecretary of State Michel Tranet. They date from the 7th to 13th centuries.
and include an 11th-century statue that is one of the few in Cambodia with a head.
