Last week, New York returned two 8th-century bronze Buddha statues, stolen by dealer Douglas Latchford, to Indonesia.
A ceremony was held in New York on Wednesday to commemorate the return of the stolen artifacts by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The bronze statues, measuring 16 inches and 20 inches, depict the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion. Alongside the two statues, the ceremony also returned two preserved human skulls. The skulls came from a large collection of stolen human remains from Middle Eastern countries, and originally came from the group of Dayak tribes in Borneo.
At an unknown time, the bronze Buddhas were stolen from their archaeological site in Indonesia and sold to disgraced dealer Douglas Latchford. They were part of the large collection of stolen artifacts Latchford sold to an unnamed collector between 2003 and 2007. Latchford was convicted of smuggling stolen artifacts in 2019; however, he died in Thailand the next year. In 2021, the anonymous collector relinquished 34 stolen artifacts sold to them by Latchford, including the two bronze Buddhas.
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The ceremony was helmed by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, who said: “It is with great pleasure that we send these artworks on the final leg of their journey home.” Winanto Adi, the consul general of Indonesia, said that the act reflected the mutual respect and trust between the two countries.
