Lingapura Hunchback - the story behind the statue:

Lingapura Hunchback - the story behind the statue:

The gift by disgraced art dealer Douglas Latchford of the Lingapura Hunchback to the National Museum in October 2002 was covered by the magazine, Arts of Asia and their pictures show Latchford and his sidekick Emma Bunker presenting the statue to the Cambodian authorities. At the same ceremony, 178 exhibits that had been held in storage at the Royal Palace, after they were sent there for safety by Angkor Conservation in 1993, were also handed over to the museum. Remarkably, this cache of artifacts also contained a rare hunchback sculpture from Prasat Beng Vien. Latchford and Bunker, who at that time were regarded as two of the most knowledgeable scholars on all things Khmer and who included the Lingapura Hunchback in their 2004 book, Adoration & Glory, were feted by all for their philanthropic generosity. Oh, how that view would change dramatically in years to come as a long shadow hung over their joint involvement in Khmer art before they both passed away. The headless, armless and footless Lingapura Hunchback’s original home was the state temple of Prasat Thom at the Koh Ker complex of Jayavarman IV in the first-half of the 10th century before it went missing, with truckloads of other statues, during the early 1970s and the civil war period of Cambodia’s troubled history. Latchford’s story was that he had seen the piece in a collector’s magazine in 1983 and bought it for an undisclosed sum. Later, he realized it was the same hunchback statue - with its hands together in a gesture of respect - that appeared in a 1939 book by French scholar Henri Parmentier, and felt 'obliged' to return it to its rightful home. A typical fabrication that Latchford invented to hide the truth.

The reputation of Douglas Latchford has been exposed in recent years, as the shadowy figure pulling the strings behind the looting and trafficking of priceless Khmer antiquities around the globe. Court filings and indictments brought his name and his mis-deeds into the limelight, and following his death towards the end of 2020, a promise by his daughter to return his Khmer collection of over a hundred top-of-the-range pieces of artwork – believed to be valued at USD50 million - had officials and art lovers holding their breath in anticipation. A similar reaction was pretty much par for the course when Latchford was making all the right noises and displaying his largesse between 2002 and 2011, when he was bestowing gifts to the National Museum in Phnom Penh that included sculptures, gold jewelry and even money to improve the museum’s electrical lighting system. His unique way of inveigling himself into the hearts and minds of the Cambodian authorities was mirrored in his philanthropic donations to other museums around the globe. The truth is that as the go-to antiques broker living in Bangkok he had access to such a treasure trove of Khmer artifacts that he regularly gifted valuable pieces to high-profile museums such as the Metropolitan in New York or the Denver Museum of Art, in order to curry favour and to maintain his public reputation as a generous patron of the arts. He enhanced this further with the publication of three scholarly books on Khmer antiquities, though in part, these were vehicles to provide credible cover for his own collection concealed in covert private hoards, such as the secretive Skanda Trust, and kept at his homes in London and Bangkok. He was a master of manipulation and deception for more than half a century and hoodwinked almost everyone he met.

This is the fanciful text that Latchford and Bunker offered up in describing the Lingapura Hunchback in their 2004 book, Adoration and Glory: ‘This torso of a hunchback is one of the most extraordinary sculptures associated with Lingapura (Koh Ker), the grand capital of the Khmer kingdom under Jayavarman IV. Its misshapen body displays an unusual clinical realism for Khmer art, in contrast to the powerful athletic figures traditionally associated with the sculptural program at Lingapura. The hunchback was published in 1939 by Parmentier, who noted that it was located near gopura IIE (entrance) of Prasat Thom, the major temple at Lingapura. Clothed in a simple Khmer sampot can kpin, the figure was shown kneeling, with one knee up and the other under the body, on the remains of a tiered square pedestal. Although the head was missing and the figure badly damaged, the broken arms had been reattached with iron pins sometime before 1939. The arms were shown raised with the hands placed palm to palm in a gesture of respect. The hunchback disappeared during the civil war, and reappeared in 1998 on the London art market. It was subsequently purchased and returned as a gift to the National Museum of Cambodia in 2002. Kyphosis, the Greek for hunchback, is a congenital disease in which the bones dematerialize. This condition results in a collapse of the vertebrae so that the back bulges out and a similar bulge distorts the chest. According to Malleret, hunchbacks are represented in the religious art of numerous Asian cultures. They may have been considered genies and therefore auspicious, particularly as a guardian figure for a temple precinct, as was the Koh Ker hunchback.’ [Extract from Adoration and Glory, 2004]. An additional post on hunchback sculptures will follow.Credit By :Andy Brouwer