Epstein files: document links former MoMA president to looted Cambodian antiquities

A single-page document contained in files released by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of the case related to Jeffrey Epstein, who was charged with child sex trafficking and died in prison in 2019, officially by suicide, links billionaire and art collector Leon Black to a core group of Southeast Asian works that could be traced to looting contexts. This is reported by Artnews, which reports on the news published by Bloomberg Businessweek, which analyzed the material made public.

The document is an inventory dated 2014 and titled Leon Black/ Narrows South East Asian Art Inventory. The reference to “Narrows” concerns an investment vehicle associated with Black. The list records a dozen bronze and stone sculptures from Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Subjects include representations of the Hindu god Vishnu and Maitreya, a figure revered in Buddhism. The total estimated market value for the works is $27.7 million (about 23 million euros).

The inventory indicates purchase prices reaching $7 million (6 million euros) for a sculpture depicting the god Shiva. Eight additional works exceed $1 million. The very Shiva sculpture valued at $7 million, Bloomberg notes, would match the description of a work linked to antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford, a central figure in numerous investigations into the trafficking of Cambodian artifacts. Latchford was indicted in 2019 by U.S. federal prosecutors on fraud and conspiracy charges related to the trade in artifacts from Cambodia. He died the following year before the case went to trial. Subsequently, his family returned a large collection of works to Cambodian authorities. The context for the events is that of the systematic looting of Cambodian cultural sites during the conflicts that pitted the Khmer Rouge insurgency (the communist guerrilla movement) against other factions between the 1960s and 1990s, with an estimated death toll of about two million.

In addition, the $7 million Shiva sculpture had been published by Latchford in a volume where it was described as one of the most important dated and known Khmer bronze sculptures. At the time, the work was reported to belong to an unidentified private collector. The spreadsheet in Epstein’s related files indicates that Black would have purchased the sculpture in “Jul-13.” If the indication refers to July 2013, the acquisition would have taken place a year after the issue of Cambodian looting had assumed international prominence, particularly when Sotheby’s became involved in a case related to the offering for sale of a Khmer sculpture believed to have been stolen. It was around that time that the Justice Department began to take a direct interest in the matter, according to Bloomberg.

Further evidence emerges from correspondences obtained by Bloomberg Businessweek. In a 2013 communication, Douglas Latchford wrote to London dealer John Eskenazi about a bronze work similar to the one mentioned in the inventory, which Latchford allegedly provided for Eskenazi to sell to Black. In the same documentation, Latchford discussed the possibility of proposing a 12th-century bronze sculpture to Black after an Australian museum canceled the purchase due to insufficient documentation on the provenance, i.e., the history of the work’s ownership transitions. Investigations into Latchford’s activities have also affected major museum institutions. In 2022, the United States returned to Cambodia 30 objects that were allegedly trafficked by the dealer and sold for sums of up to $1.5 million (about 1.25 million euros). In 2023, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York initiated the return of 14 sculptures to Cambodia and two others to Thailand, works found to be linked to the circuit traceable to Latchford.

Leon Black, formerly managing director of Apollo Global Management, is known to have paid Jeffrey Epstein financial advisory fees even after the financier’s criminal convictions were public knowledge; he also served as chairman of the board of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and currently serves as a trustee of the institution. In 2021, more than 150 artists made a formal request to MoMA to remove Black from his position at the helm of the museum over his financial ties to Epstein.

Epstein files: document links former MoMA president to looted Cambodian antiquities

The author of this article: Noemi Capoccia

Originaria di Lecce, classe 1995, ha conseguito la laurea presso l'Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara nel 2021. Le sue passioni sono l'arte antica e l'archeologia. Dal 2024 lavora in Finestre sull'Arte.

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