“Objects in museums have to come from somewhere. The stories of how they came to be in those collections often involve laws being broken, unethical behaviour, and extreme violence.” — Matthew Campbell

Imagine a gay Jeffrey Epstein who set up shop in Thailand. Only rather than peddling young girls, he traded in bodybuilders and priceless antiquities. That’s the story of the British émigré Douglas Latchford, the subject of Matthew Campbell’s new book The Man Who Stole the Gods. It’s the true story of a man who was born in the last days of the British Raj, made his fortune in Bangkok, became the world’s leading dealer of Khmer antiquities, and was indicted for criminal conspiracy in 2019.

Campbell’s tale is simultaneously a crime story, a history of Cambodia, and a parable about the relationship between Western wealth and the world’s cultural heritage. The Khmer Empire, which dominated Southeast Asia from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries, produced one of the finest civilisations of the medieval world. Angkor in the twelfth century had 750,000 people — making it ten times the size of London. After the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, every Khmer site in Cambodia was systematically looted. The pieces went to the Metropolitan Museum, to Christie’s, to private American collectors. Latchford was the central conduit. The Jeffrey Epstein enabler.

Like Epstein, Latchford got away with it for years. Unlike Epstein, he died a free man, even chalking up a 2020 New York Times obituary as a Khmer antiquities expert.

Five Takeaways

• Douglas Latchford: The British Jeffrey Epstein of Asian Art. Born in the last days of the Raj, made his fortune in Bangkok, became the world’s leading Khmer antiquities dealer. Sold to the Met. Received a glowing NYT obituary. Was the central organiser of a decades-long criminal conspiracy. Indicted 2019. Died 2020 before extradition.

• The Khmer Empire. Dominated Southeast Asia from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries. Angkor: 750,000 people in the twelfth century. London: 40,000. Every Khmer site was systematically looted. The pieces went to Western museums and private collectors.

• Nixon, Kissinger, and the Conditions for Genocide. The Ho Chi Minh Trail ran through Cambodia. American bombing from 1968 — aimed at a communist HQ that never existed — destabilised the country. Created the conditions for the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot: civilisation needs not reform but erasure. A blank slate.

• The Museum World’s Complicity. Objects in museums don’t originate in New York or London. How they got there often involved laws being broken and extreme violence. The Sackler parallel: the more journalists look, the worse the stories get.

• The Happy Ending. A Cambodia-US Department of Justice collaboration tracked down hundreds of stolen objects. Phnom Penh’s National Museum is running out of room. They may need to build a new wing. That’s a good problem to have.

About the Guest

Matthew Campbell is an investigative journalist at Bloomberg Businessweek and the author of The Man Who Stole the Gods (Portfolio, June 2, 2026) and co-author of Dead in the Water. He lives in Singapore.

References

The Man Who Stole the Gods by Matthew Campbell (Portfolio, June 2, 2026): penguinrandomhouse.com/books/739182
Dead in the Water by Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel (2022)
Patrick Radden Keefe, Empire of Pain

About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.

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Chapters:

00:00:31 Introduction: Dead in the Water and the new book
00:01:59 The British Jeffrey Epstein of Asian art
00:03:00 The dark side of the museum world
00:03:50 Objects in museums have to come from somewhere
00:04:49 The next chapter in European colonisation?
00:06:42 The Vietnam War and Cambodia
00:08:05 Kissinger and the bamboo Pentagon that never existed
00:08:53 The Khmer Empire: 750,000 people when London had 40,000
00:13:26 Pol Pot and the blank slate ideology
00:30:00 The indictment and Latchford’s death
00:35:00 The recovery effort
00:40:00 Phnom Penh’s National Museum: running out of room
00:43:15 Ben Kingsley to play Latchford?
00:44:17 Did Latchford get away with it?