The Late Antiques Dealer’s Daughter Douglas Latchford agreed to pay $12 million and hand over a 7th century Vietnamese sculpture from his father’s estate to settle a civil case that Latchford allegedly made millions selling stolen items.
Latchford’s daughter, Julia Copleston, inherited more than 125 gold statues and relics from her father that authorities say were looted from Cambodia, along with cash. In 2021, Copleston agreed to feedback the 125 objects in Cambodia.
The deal with prosecutors will resolve allegations that her father transferred proceeds from the sale of stolen antiquities to offshore bank accounts in the Bailiwick of Jersey, a self-governing region in the UK, according to the Department of Justice.
Latchford’s daughter also agreed to hand over a bronze sculpture of the Hindu goddess Durga, which dates back to the 7th century. Latchford allegedly purchased the sculpture with “contaminated funds,” according to the Department of Justice, after it was stolen in Vietnam in 2008. In an email thread seen by investigators, Latchford said the sculpture came from the my son’s sanctuarya Unesco World Heritage Site in Vietnam.
Between 2003 and 2020, Latchford received more than $12 million in bank accounts in the UK and New York as payment for the sale of stolen and smuggled antiquities in Southeast Asia to buyers and dealers in the United States, the Justice Department said. Latchford then allegedly transferred at least $12 million of these illegally derived funds to his Jersey bank account.
“For years, Douglas Latchford made millions selling looted antiquities on the American art market, hiding his ill-gotten gains abroad. This historic forfeiture action and settlement shows that we will relentlessly follow the money wherever it leads to combat the illicit trade in cultural heritage,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
Latchford was charged on charges of wire fraud conspiracy and other crimes in 2019 on charges that he had for decades sold looted Cambodian antiques on the international art market. Latchford allegedly created false provenances, invoices and shipping documents, and misrepresented the countries of origin of the works and the years of excavation. Prosecutors at the time said Latchford first raised eyebrows in 2011 when Cambodia claimed a 10th-century statue of Khmer warrior Duryodhana up for auction at Sotheby’s in New York was looted from a resort of temples at Koh Ker, an isolated archaeological site. The statue was withdrawn from auction and later returned to Cambodia after a legal battle, during which authorities accused Latchford of helping move the work. The indictment was dismissed after Latchford died in 2020 at 89 in Bangkok.
Institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena and the Denver Art Museum have all returned items with links to Koh Ker. Latchford’s trafficking activities are the subject of the recent Doug Dynamite podcast.
