My visit to the National Museum last week to check out the inclusion of additional artifacts on display as well as improved signage went well. In the corner section headlined by the marble-like Reclining Vishnu, were three display cabinets with 8 bronzes on show, though they were lacking labels at this time. The hastily-arranged display was part of the 75th anniversary celebration held at the museum, which recognized the strength of diplomatic relations between the USA and Cambodia, which has supported the recent return of so many cultural treasures from the United States. The 8 bronzes were all looted from Cambodia between the 1970s and 2000s and have now found their way back home, so without labelling, it’s important for me to provide some background to each of the impressive exhibits. Let’s begin with the first cabinet, on the left with a pair of chariot Naga Finials and an Adorned Meditating Buddha, both from the 12th century, and repatriated to Cambodia from the James H Clark private collection. Between the years 2003 and 2008, the disgraced art dealer Douglas Latchford sold at least thirty precious pieces of Khmer art to the American co-founder of Netscape and billionaire philanthropist, primarily to decorate his Miami Beach, Florida penthouse in the United States. He paid around USD35 million for the Khmer artworks, though after he sold the penthouse, the collection had been kept in storage and out of sight for the past decade, before the United States federal authorities contacted him. They presented evidence that Latchford provided false statements, fake provenance documents and illegal customs paperwork to hide the real identity of the looted sculptures, and Clark voluntarily handed over his works of art. The American authorities announced the surrender of the items at the start of 2022, they were formally handed over to Cambodian representatives in New York in August and arrived home in early 2023. Meanwhile, Latchford was indicted by the Southern District of New York in 2019 on charges of antiquities trafficking, but died a year later.
The Naga Finials and Adorned Buddha were included in the thirty Clark artifacts returned to Cambodia but have never been displayed in public before. However, Latchford and cohort Emma Bunker liked to advertise their looted plunder in three glossy coffee-table books which they used as a veritable catalogue of stunning Khmer artworks, which the deceptive Latchford used to promote and sell his stolen array of antiquities to private collectors, galleries and museums. The Naga Finials were included in the 2004 book, Adoration and Glory: The Golden Age of Khmer Art, while the seated Adorned Buddha appeared in the Khmer Bronzes book of 2011. If we look at the much-decorated meditating Buddha first, the US authorities confirmed that in or about April 2006, Latchford sold the bronze to Clark. However, in August 2005 he had emailed a Manhattan-based dealer to say the figure had been recently excavated from Cambodia, and included photographs of the bronze covered in dirt, having been recovered from the Srah Srang Lake area of Angkor. It was dispatched to London for cleaning before it was sent to Clark in the USA among a shipment of antiquities. Later, Latchford brazenly included the bronze in his 2011 book with the following text: ‘A handsome Angkor Wat-style Adorned Buddha image minus its Naga-throne reveals the creative ingenuity used by Khmer artisans to create large images with extra appendages. The deity is lost-wax cast and supplied with a separately cast usnisha-cover that was fitted onto the head mechanically. Three pendant loops beneath the Buddha would have fit into slots on the now missing Naga. The tiny object held in the palm of the right hand was once thought to represent a medicine container, an iconographic earmark of the Bhaisajyaguru, the Medicine Buddha.’ A contrasting view is that this Buddha in meditation, with decorative body jewelry that includes a diadem and conical chignon, pendant earrings, a pectoral necklace, bangles and a waist belt with pendants, can be dated to later in the 12th century, in the decade before Jayavarman VII took power.
The beautifully-crafted bronze Naga Finials were in a private collection according to Latchford, when he included them in his first book, the 2004-published Adoration and Glory. It was around the same time as Latchford was supplying Clark with dozens of Khmer antiquities including this pair. This is how Latchford and Bunker, who was the recognized scholar of the duo, described the Finials in Adoration and Glory: ‘A seven-headed Naga with a spread hood decorates the top of each of these finials. Each Naga displays a circular design on its chest, a design that resembles a stylized blossom and is seen frequently on Khmer Naga images. The casting represented here is of the highest quality. The finials were each hollow cast by the lost-wax process in two parts, the upper Naga section and the lower curved section. The upper section was cast upside down in one pour from a wax model built up in nine layers, the construction of which is visible on the back. The lower section is decorated with an upside-down Kala head at its base where it terminates in an open socket designed to fit over an upright wooden element attached perhaps to a chariot.’ Today they are on display at the National Museum in Phnom Penh, having returned to their rightful home.Credit By :Andy Brouwer
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