Latchford’s Brahma: In 2004, Douglas Latchford, the Indian-born Brit who we now know illegally shipped looted Khmer antiquities all over the world from his Bangkok headquarters for fifty years, included a four-faced Brahma in his scholarly book, Adoration and Glory: The Golden Age of Khmer Art, which he co-authored and self-published with Emma Bunker. At the time Latchford said it was in an unnamed private collection. Fast forward to last year, when a reader sent me two pictures of the head(s) which were taken in 2014, inside Latchford’s London home no less. Not exactly a surprise as he often offered up false and invented provenance to deflect prying eyes. Whether the Brahma head(s) will be returned by his family, remains to be seen. A large shipment of 70+ artifacts are expected to arrive in Cambodia very soon. The description of the Brahma head(s) in Adoration and Glory, despite Latchford’s deceitful style, is nonetheless accurate: ‘This three-dimensional Khmer representation of Brahma is stylistically related to sculpture found at Koh Ker in northeastern Cambodia. The god is shown with four heads that are identical in appearance. The noses on two faces have recent repairs, otherwise the head is intact. Strands of twisted hair arranged in horizontal lines in typical Koh Ker style form the quadruple jatamukuta. Each is circled at the base by a band of large pearls, a specific Khmer characteristic not found earlier in the art of other Southeast Asian cultures. The top of the conjoined jatamukutas is decorated with a flower with four petals framed by twisted tresses of hair. Each face has open eyes with incised pupils, eyebrows represented by a continuous line, rimmed lips, and a moustache that curls up at the tips.’ [text from Adoration and Glory, 2004]. Sadly, the original temple location for this Brahma, together with the whereabouts of the body, is unknown.
Credit By :Andy Brouwer