Just to revisit the major theme of Mr Latchford's career...
Cultural preservation V. Plunder

from an NYT report at the time of his arrest in 2019
(Interesting to note that he was never seriously pursued and charged until he was powerless and on his deaths bed)

The prosecutors presented in its court papers a sordid and alternative perspective on Mr. Latchford, who had been hailed in Cambodia as a protector of the country’s relics, having donated rare artifacts and money to the national museum in Phnom Penh. In 2008, he was honored with the country’s equivalent of a knighthood. He is also the co-author of three books — “Adoration and Glory: The Golden Age of Khmer Art,” “Khmer Gold” and “Khmer Bronzes” — that are foundational reference works for experts.

In previous interviews, Mr. Latchford has denied any wrongdoing, defending his collecting practices as the norm at a time when there were lower standards for provenance and sales documents associated with cultural treasures. In 2012, when the United States government had tied him to the transportation of the Duryodhana, he said that Westerners like him who had acquired Southeast Asian relics amid the wars in Cambodia and Vietnam should be seen as having rescued objects that might have otherwise been destroyed or forgotten.

The United States government officials depicted him instead as a major player in a transnational criminal network dealing in cultural property who started supplying Western institutions and private collectors with looted antiquities as long ago as the 1970s.

An interesting Question
“If the French and other Western collectors had not preserved this art, what would be the understanding of Khmer culture today?” he said. (Latchford)

Response. ??
Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said Mr. Latchford had “built a career out of the smuggling and illicit sale of priceless Cambodian antiquities, often straight from archaeological sites.”

Tess Davis, an expert on Cambodian antiquities law, said “the name Douglas Latchford casts a long shadow” over the fate of Khmer treasures that have been smuggled and sold abroad since the Vietnam War era.
“As we are seeing today in Iraq and Syria, a generation ago in Cambodia, brutal civil war led to the wholesale plunder of a great ancient civilization,” Ms. Davis said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/arts ... ities.html

imo, in short.
Latchford et al, and the French historically, have desecrated so much of what they claim to admire.
Modern French, Khmer and other academics and preservationists have done an unbelievable job in understanding and conserving the nation's cultural patrimony. - under the circumstances.

Cambodia’s Khmer heritage is finally returning home
Collector Douglas Latchford’s daughter has turned over his entire collection—as well as records that could lead to further recoveries from US institutions
Vincent Noce
19th March 2021 00:20 GMT


A sandstone figure of Shiva and Skanda, which featured on the cover of a book co-authored by Latchford, one of the objects his daughter has already agreed to ship from the UK to the National Museum in Phnom Penh
Photo: Matthew Hollow, Royal Government of Cambodia

The restitution of Douglas Latchford’s Khmer art collection to Cambodia, announced six months after his death by his daughter and first reported by the New York Times, follows years of secret negotiations. But, according to information provided to The Art Newspaper by those involved, the deal struck with Cambodia does not end the US federal investigation into Latchford’s business operations. Considering that the Cambodians have been promised access to his archives, and would be able to share their content with the US authorities, it might even renew pressure on US museums and collections that acquired art pieces from the prominent dealer and collector to examine their provenance more closely.

Douglas Latchford, a dual citizen of the UK and Thailand, died in Bangkok on 2 August, aged 88, eight months after he was indicted by the US Attorney’s Office in New York’s Southern District for his alleged role in trafficking Southeast Asian antiquities since the 1970s. Now his daughter, who prefers to use her Thai name Nawapan Kriangsak to protect her family’s privacy, has agreed to turn his collection over to Cambodia in stages.

“The entire collection,” she confirms, “is now the property of Cambodia, including the most valuable items which have been in storage in the UK. This includes many items with clear provenance, bought from auction houses or collections all over the world, as well as those with an unreliable provenance. And it also includes works which belonged to my father, but may be held by third parties. All of it is going home.”

As a preliminary gesture, Kriangsak arranged for Cambodian officials to view the collection in Bangkok and she subsequently delivered 25 pieces to them. Five other major sculptures are being shipped from the UK to the National Museum in Phnom Penh, including a sandstone figure of Shiva and Skanda, which was featured on the cover of Adoration and Glory, the publication Latchford co-authored with the scholar Emma Bunker. Cambodian authorities are especially keen to retrieve such pieces, which are believed to come from the temple complex at Koh Ker, briefly the Khmer capital during the tenth century.
Full article: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/ca ... rning-home