Skanda on a Peacock

Skanda on a Peacock

In July 2021, US authorities filed a civil forfeiture claim to seize an Angkorian Khmer sandstone sculpture of the Hindu god Skanda riding on a Peacock, alleging it had been looted by former Khmer Rouge soldiers at some point in the early 1970s.

In court filings, authorities described how "Looter-1," who Cambodian investigators gave the codename "Lion," joined the Khmer Rouge at the age of approximately 10 years old. Lion’s father became involved in the looting of temples, and Lion began assisting him when he was around 18. From approximately the 1980s until the late 1990s, Lion developed an expertise in the discovery and removal of Khmer cultural objects from various temples and other sites around Cambodia.

By the 1990s, Lion was leading a group of approximately 450 people working in multiple teams to loot temples and archeological sites, including the Prasat Krachap temple complex within Koh Ker. He sent objects discovered at Koh Ker to brokers across the border in Thailand, who in turn sold the objects to a man they knew as "Sia Ford" – the British trafficker Douglas Latchford.

This Skanda sculpture was smuggled from Bangkok to Singapore, London and eventually to New York. On April 10, 2000, Latchford sold the Skanda for USD $1,500,000 to a corporate entity, and it was later inherited by a member of the family that controlled the company.

Starting in 2012, Latchford's antiquities trafficking was the subject of a sweeping investigation by the US Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York, which in July 2021 filed a civil forfeiture complaint to seize the Skanda sculpture and return it to Cambodia. The unnamed heir agreed to return it after being notified of the civil complaint. It was repatriated along with several other Latchford items in March 2023.

1

Sculpture – statues, carvings, bronzes, reliefs, figurines

Khmer

unnamed heir of a family=held corporation that purchased the Skanda

Cambodia

Jason Felch

Damien Huffer