Last month’s Peace Palace exhibition of repatriated Khmer treasures was the perfect

Last month’s Peace Palace exhibition of repatriated Khmer treasures was the perfect opportunity to display a selection from the large haul of Khmer gold and gem-encrusted jewelry that was returned to Cambodia from the personal collection of disgraced dealer Douglas Latchford. On his death in 2020, his family promised to return his personal hoard of works of art which included 77 pieces of Angkorian jewelry that was kept under lockdown in London and only recently handed over to the Cambodian restitution team led by HE Hun Many, the government's representative. There was much to admire on show at the Peace Palace but perhaps the most enigmatic piece of jewelry was a gold tiara, likely from the pre-Angkor period of the 7-8th century. The semicircular band, usually worn at the front of a headdress by royalty or an elite, was decorated with patterns and engraved in the center, a standing, naked male possibly representing Buddha as a young boy, speaking his first truth. At that time, he was known as Siddhartha Gautama and is depicted with one hand on his hip and the other in the air, with pronounced facial features particularly his ears and lips. As with most of the treasures coming from the Latchford collection – he began trading in looted Khmer antiquities in the 1960s from his home in Bangkok until his death – the original location for this precious piece is unknown.