The Terrific Pandora Papers Looted Art Article

Prang Temple of Jayavarman IV (928-41), Koh Ker Cambodia (via)

I want to praise the terrific reporting done by Peter Whoriskey, Malia Politzer, Delphine Reuter, and Spencer Woodman. Their piece titled “Global Hunt for Looted Treasures Leads to Offshore Trusts” gets so many of the details about the illicit trade in antiquities right, and is thoroughly sourced and researched. The longread details the extent to which the super-rich have turned to offshore trusts and asset havens in order to avoid the increasing object-focused investigation and regulation of the art and antiquities trade. The piece is fantastic, with a beautiful kicker at the end, don’t miss it.

The great detail about the antiquities trade, the wealthy collectors who fuel it with money, and the damage done to sites and heritage are a real highlight of the reporting. Here’s a glimpse:

“Latchford’s infatuation with Khmer artwork coincided with a hot market for antiquities looted from Cambodia and neighboring Thailand and Laos. All three countries were part of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from the 9th to 15th centuries.

Beginning in the 1970s, amid the tumult of civil war and Pol Pot’s genocidal regime in Cambodia, the temple complexes of the Khmer Empire — including three designated by UNESCO as World Heritage sites — fell prey to massive bouts of ransacking. Organized networks, often headed by members of the military or the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot’s radical communist movement, broke statues from their pedestals. Dynamite blasted other relics loose. Entire walls were trucked away. Proceeds from this pillaging, experts say, helped fund the fighting. The looting continued into the 2010s.

One particular target was the ancient city of Koh Ker, with its 76 temples and aqueducts, statuary and a seven-level pyramid. The statues of Koh Ker were distinctive and revolutionary for their time: Artisans carved sandstone masterpieces that were intricately detailed, larger-than-life and often infused with dynamic movement.”

The Pandora papers are the name given a consortium of hundreds of news organizations around the world who have done a terrific job of making the investigation into the 12 million documents that reveals hidden wealth, tax avoidance, and even money laundering. The data was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). It focuses on the collection of art of the late Douglas Latchford, and the efforts by Federal Prosecutors to seize looted art from him and even indict him personally. The documents reveal that these offshore trusts are the mechanism used when investigators and prosecutors investigate, seize, or forfeit this looted material and the proceeds. As investigation and prosecution has advanced in recent decades, so too have the strategies used to evade the law.

One of the interesting details of the piece is how many museums still have pieces linked to Latchford or his associates:

  • Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
  • Denver Art Museum
  • British Museum
  • Cleveland Museum of Art
  • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  • Asian Art Museum, San Fancisco
  • Brooklyn Museum, New York
  • National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
  • Walter Art Museum, Baltimore
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Many of these of course are museums which have often been connected to the illicit trade in art and antiquities. The piece also offers a rundown of responses by these museums which range from LACMA’s ‘no comment’; to the MET’s empty claim that it ‘is committed to the responsible acquisition of archaeological art’.

Peter Whoriskey et al., Global Hunt for Looted Treasures Leads to Offshore Trusts, Washington Post (Oct. 5, 2021), https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2021/met-museum-cambodian-antiquities-latchford/ [https://perma.cc/5ZAG-5E67].

Responses from Museums to Pandora Papers Antiquities Investigation, Washington Post (Oct. 5, 2021), https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/10/05/museums-response-pandora-papers-antiquities/ [https://perma.cc/SCG9-CHK2].

Pandora Papers: A Simple Guide to the Pandora Papers Leak, BBC News (Oct. 5, 2021), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-58780561 [https://perma.cc/574Y-PNNF].

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