Federal authorities made an announcement on Thursday regarding the settlement of a civil case involving the daughter of an accused antiquities trafficker. As part of the settlement, the daughter, known as Julia Copleston, has agreed to forfeit $12 million from her father’s estate. The case accused her father, Douglas A.J. Latchford, of profiting from the sale of stolen Cambodian artifacts.
Additionally, Copleston has also agreed to hand over a bronze statue from Vietnam that was purchased by Latchford using illegally obtained funds. Latchford, a scholar and dealer of ancient Khmer artifacts who passed away in 2020, left behind over 125 statues and gold relics that authorities believe were looted from Cambodia. Copleston inherited these items along with an undisclosed amount of money from her father.
In 2021, Copleston reached an agreement with the Cambodian government to return the looted items. Negotiations have been ongoing since then regarding Latchford’s financial accounts.
“The late Douglas Latchford was a prominent dealer of stolen antiquities,” stated Ivan J. Arvelo, a special agent in charge of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations. “His involvement in numerous illicit transactions over several decades resulted in millions of dollars in payments from buyers and dealers in the United States. As part of this agreement, $12 million will rightfully be forfeited by his estate.”
Latchford was indicted in 2019 by federal prosecutors in New York for trafficking in looted Cambodian relics and falsifying documents. However, the indictment was dismissed following his death at the age of 88.
Toek Tik, a reformed looter, has come forward in recent years to provide information about areas in Cambodia where he participated in looting antiquities. He claims that many of the stolen artifacts he obtained ended up being sold by Latchford. According to Toek Tik, Latchford would browse through photographs taken by him to select which items should be stolen.
The Cambodian government has been successful in their efforts to recover looted antiquities, pursuing museums in the United States and other countries. Currently, discussions are underway between Cambodia and the Metropolitan Museum of Art regarding numerous looted objects that Cambodian officials believe are held by the museum, some of which were acquired from Latchford.
Officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, who handled the civil case, revealed that Latchford provided false provenance records and made fraudulent statements on shipping and import records when bringing antiquities into the United States. Latchford had bank accounts in Britain, New York, and Jersey, where he transferred at least $12 million in illicit proceeds.
The U.S. Justice Department will determine the future disposition of the forfeited funds once they are received. The seventh-century bronze statue, depicting the goddess Durga, was stolen from a UNESCO World Heritage site in Vietnam. Federal officials confirmed Latchford’s involvement in the theft through recovered emails from his computer.
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