The Cambodian government formally reached out to the family of Emma C. Bunker, an art historian who died in 2021 and who sat on the board of the Denver Art Museum, for her records and archival materials, the Denver Post reported.
The request follows on from the repatriation of 11 Asian artifacts by DAM in recent years to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. The works had primarily been donated by Bunker, who came under scrutiny several years ago after it was found that she sourced acquisitions of several works from Douglas Latchford, an art and antiquities dealer accused of smuggling and dealing in looted Southeast Asian antiquities. Latchford died in 2020 before he could stand trial, while Bunker died a year later and was never officially charged with any wrongdoing.
The Denver Post, however, continued to report on Bunker’s ties to Latchford after her death, releasing a three-part investigation in 2022 alleging that Bunker helped Latchford use DAM as a “way station for looted art.” Bunker had established an acquisitions fund for DAM to help set up its Asian galleries. The Post alleged that she used her scholarly reputation to vouch for Latchford and even helped the dealer forge provenance records to faciltiate the sales through the fund.
The museum cut ties with Bunker in 2023, removing her name from its Southeast Asian gallery wall and returning a sizable donation to her family.
Now the Cambodian government, through attorney Bradley Gordon, sent an email to Bunker’s son, Lambert, asking for his mother’s “extensive notebooks concerning Cambodia,” as wellas photographs of Cambodian statues that Bunker arranged for several publications co-written with Latchford.
“We are very eager to consult these materials as we continue our search for several important statues originating from the country,” Gordon wrote in the email, which the Post reviewed.
The Denver Art Museum did not respond to a request for comment at press time.
