The True Crime Story of a Notorious Looter
Hyperallergic highlights Matthew Campbell’s 2026 book The Man Who Stole the Gods, which details how British dealer Douglas Latchford trafficked looted Cambodian (Khmer) antiquities on a large scale before his death in 2020, with objects sold to institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The piece describes a criminal network that removed sculptures from sanctuaries—sometimes decapitating or dismembering them—and traces how they entered galleries and auction houses, while also scrutinizing the roles of museum professionals and scholars who enabled the trade. In a separate feature, the publication notes that Frank Stella assembled a significant collection of Diné (Navajo) weavings, now shown publicly for the first time at Arader Galleries on Madison Avenue in New York City through June 10, alongside a selection of Stella’s early geometric drawings ahead of a sale. The roundup also reports the death of abstract painter Jay Milder, co-founder of City Gallery, at age 92.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Storage Seizures and Restitution Reckonings