Matthew Campbell

My guest today is Matthew Campbell.

He is an editor of Bloomberg Businessweek.

He spent a decade reporting out of Europe before relocating to Singapore and over his career has filed for more than 25 countries on crime, corruption, terrorism, economics, public health, and the environment.

Welcome back to In the Shadows of Utopia.

Very special guest on this bonus episode today, the investigative award-winning journalist from Bloomberg, Matthew Campbell, to speak about his latest excellent book, "The Man Who Stole the Gods," detailing the decades-long art heist with Douglas Latchford at the center of it.

So enjoy.

[upbeat music] Many people listening to this show are fairly well invested in Cambodian history.

At the center of the trade was Douglas Latchford, an expat Brit known as Dynamite Doug for the ruthless methods his looting crews used to blast statues from Cambodia's temples.

My next guest, Matthew Campbell, spent years investigating Latchford's murky supply chain that led from the killing fields to the most distinguished museums in the world, including our National Gallery and The Metropolitan Museum in New York.

An award-winning journalist with a number of distinguished books to his credit, Matthew explores the inner workings of this heist in his new book, The Man Who Stole the Gods: A True Story of War, Obsession, and a Global Art Conspiracy.

Matthew joins us from Singapore.

On ABC Radio National, this is Late Night Live.

I'm David Marr.

I'm talking to Matthew Campbell about the looting of Khmer artwork in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge, uh, atrocities in Cambodia, which he rates as perhaps one of the greatest art heists in the history of the world.

Matthew, let's talk about the sculptures themselves.