Dynamite Doug podcast is a pioneer in ‘looted heritage’ genre—but not its peak

Conversations round repatriation and the return of stolen artwork to its nation of origin have lastly moved into the mainstream. However it’s nonetheless comparatively uncommon to listen to, outdoors of the business, concerning the individuals who have lately been concerned within the unlawful antiquities commerce. The brand new podcast Dynamite Doug tells the story of how Douglas Latchford and his collaborator Emma Bunker illegally eliminated tons of of sculptures from Cambodia, usually by faking provenance data and export licences, to fill the galleries of museums within the West. Latchford was charged for antiquities trafficking in New York in 2019 however died the next yr.

The narrative of Dynamite Doug zips alongside. The host, Canadian actress Ellen Wong, does a superb job of presenting the story about Latchford and his associates, with solely the occasional predictable Indiana Jones joke. As an introduction to the unlawful antiquities and artwork commerce, Dynamite Doug is nice. Its pacing and accessibility will, hopefully, push listeners to consider the objects they see in museums. The season is brief, with solely six 30-minute episodes, and I discovered myself ready for a crescendo at occasions—the compactness makes the sequence a simple hear, however the podcast format doesn’t enable for the sort of footnoting and deeper context from which a narrative like this might profit.

Latchford was not alone

Latchford’s case is well-known to these within the museum sector, however he’s one in all many sellers and collectors concerned within the trendy colonialism of white-collar artwork crime. Dynamite Doug continuously describes Latchford’s dealing because the “plunder of a complete civilisation”, and the variety of objects that handed by way of his palms is horrifying, however the present tends to make Latchford its foremost character to the purpose of absolving others of duty.

There are a handful of references to different acts of looting—throwaway feedback that principally serve to emphasize the size of theft from Cambodia, and barely disingenuous claims that “not like the Elgin Marbles, and different brewing controversies over stolen artwork, our story isn’t historical historical past, that is occurring now”, as if there may be not lively looting occurring the world over. These feedback do not likely give a way of simply what number of looted objects are in museums within the West, or in non-public collections. Additionally they don’t do justice to the messy worldwide politics that play out in repatriation debates. What sort of give-and-take is going on behind the scenes right here? Latchford was recognized to repatriate sculptures as a distraction for the size of his crimes—what selections are being made by the establishments that at the moment are returning works to Cambodia?

Then there may be the generally naïve, generally self-serving complicity of museum workers resembling Martin Lerner, who was praised in 1997 for recognizing that one of many Khmer statues within the assortment of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Artwork matched a picture within the Worldwide Council of Museums’s 100 Lacking Objects: Looting in Angkor information, and returning it to Cambodia. However Lerner was instrumental in laundering the provenances of statues bought by Latchford, and their relationship continued into the 2010s.

The query of how deeply museums are invested in, and profit from, the commerce in stolen artwork could possibly be given extra space. Why was the artwork world so keen to show a blind eye, even when Latchford and Bunker usually contradicted themselves concerning the provenance of statues? The public sale homes Sotheby’s and Spink & Son that bought such looted works had been introduced with ample proof of looting, by way of each the sketchy provenances and the bodily situation of the statues they bought. These weren’t good felony masterminds: they had been enabled.

Though the analysis in Dynamite Doug will not be new, this technique of storytelling remains to be contemporary sufficient to compel. Following the recognition of the podcast Stuff the British Stole—which started in 2020 and takes a unique method, specializing in one object or assortment in every episode—it is smart that we are going to see extra podcasts about colonial theft, and hopefully a broader viewers for the campaigners and researchers driving repatriation. Dynamite Doug’s story is fascinating, Wong’s narration is partaking, and the interviewed consultants are wonderful. It could possibly be extra, however I believe we’re at the beginning of the style relatively than its peak. In any case, there may be not precisely a scarcity of artwork crime to cowl.