Few dates have shaped museum acquisition practice as profoundly as 1970. The adoption of the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property has come to function not only as a legal reference point but as a moral dividing line. In many institutions, an object documented outside its country of origin before 1970 encounters fewer obstacles. After 1970, the questions begin in earnest.

But what happens when the decisive date is 1969?

To finance the acquisition, the museum applied for a subsidy from the Brabant Museum Foundation, but the Foundation hesitated.  Was the purchase compatible with international agreements governing cultural property? It asked the Ethical Code Committee for Museums - formerly the Museum Code of Conduct Committee to review the case.

The Commission framed its advice around two questions: whether the museum had complied with the relevant provisions of the professional code of ethics, and whether it had exercised sufficient care in investigating the provenance of the bell. The export date of 1969 was noted as falling just before the 1970 UNESCO Convention. Although the Netherlands had not ratified the Convention at that time, the Dutch ethical code expected museums to act in accordance with its spirit.

The Commission acknowledged that the proximity of 1969 to 1970 might raise doubts. Nevertheless, it found no reason to question the stated circulation of the piece as supplied by Nies. On that basis, it concluded that illicit trade, as defined under the code, was not at issue and that the acquisition had been carried out with appropriate care. The Brabant Museum Foundation accepted the advice and the purchase proceeded.

The advice, however, was not unanimous. One member of the commission dissented and stated that he "would have been in favour of asking the opinion of the government of the country of origin in order to overcome the one-sidedness of the information available to the purchaser".  If doubt existed regarding provenance, as he believed it did, the museum should not proceed.  Even before 1970, he argued, the object should not have left Cambodia without authorisation from the relevant authorities. 

This minority view will later take on greater resonance.

In 2005, Jos van Beurden revisited the case in the academic journal Culture Without Context. His analysis focused on two aspects that had received relatively light treatment in the Commission’s recommendation.  The first concerned the certainty of the 1969 date. The Commission had referred to the possible coincidence of 1969 and 1970 but ultimately accepted the dealer’s account's of the object's circulation. Yet, in subsequent conversations Nies reportedly described 1969 as only "most probable" rather than definitive. The boundary between acceptable and problematic rested on a date that was not firmly documented, and instead amounts to hearsay. 

The second issue concerned Cambodian law. The assertion that no permission was required for export from Cambodia to Thailand sits uneasily with information we know about Cambodia's cultural property laws.  Extensive legal protections for Cambodia's cultural heritage date to the French colonial period, the early years of the country's independence, the Khmer Rouge period, as well as modern times.

In 1863, a treaty between France and the Kingdom of Cambodia established Cambodia as a protectorate of France. In 1884, a Convention between the Kingdom of Cambodia and France gave the administrative power of the State to the French, giving the French Governor for Cambodia power over all territory.

Both a 1900 decree law and a 1925 decree expressly state Cambodian cultural artefacts as being the property of the state.  According to these, no object could be exported without the authorisation of the Governor General, something the Dutch museum's bell does not have. 

Following the adoption of a new Constitution in 1993, earlier existing laws remained in force unless expressly repealed.  Legal experts, including former Director of UNESCO's Department of Cultural Heritage Lyndel Prott, supported the view that the 1925 legislation had not been abrogated by the intervening turmoil of the Khmer Rouge period.  If her interpretation was correct, the removal of the bell from Cambodia without authorisation would have been in contravention of domestic law, regardless of whether it occurred before or after 1970. Taken into focus, the dissenting commissioner’s suggestion therefore that Cambodian authorities should have been consulted before this object's purchase now appears less an outlier than a missed opportunity.

Despite this, the museum’s co-founder and curator, Dr André Lehr (1929-2007),  defended the acquisition that the Ethical Commission had approved. What more, he asked, could reasonably be required?  Implicit in that response was a narrower understanding of cultural heritage, one that placed greater weight on monumental works of art than on portable everyday religious objects. 

Yet for source countries such as Cambodia, portable antiquities are integral to the archaeological record as well as to national cultural identity. The distinction between movable and immovable, monumental or portable has little relevance in the country's heritage law and even less in the lived experience of loss among its  people. 

But this Asten case illustrates how the year 1970 has come to function as a kind of ethical shorthcut. For many institutions, “pre-1970” suggests relative safety, while “post-1970” triggers more rigorous investigation.  Over time, the date has risked becoming less a reference point for inquiry than a substitute for it.  If a buyer can be convinced that an object can plausibly be placed outside its country of origin before 1970, the intensity of scrutiny may diminish.

The difficulty is that plausible is not the same as proven.

A prominent collector and dealer in Southeast Asian antiquities, living in Thailand, Latchford was indicted in the United States for crimes related to a many-year scheme to sell hundreds of looted Cambodian antiquities on the international art market.  In September 2020, the indictment against him was dismissed following is death. 

Prior to his Denver donation, Latchford had attempted to sell two other Dong Son bells to a private American buyer one year before the Dutch museum purchased their own from Nies.  In a 2003 email Latchford described the bells as rare and referred to a recent find in the Battambang region of northwestern Cambodia, noting that he had been able to obtain several examples. Photographs taken before cleaning of these objects showed encrustations consistent with recent excavation not a storied life in a permanent collection.

In November 2021, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced a civil forfeiture complaint seeking the return of four looted Cambodian antiquities from the Denver Art Museum.  Three of these, including the Dong Son bell were gifts from Douglas Latchford, while the forth had been purchased by the Thai-based dealer outright.  Later that month, the DAM deaccessioned the pieces from its collection and they were picked up by U.S. officials for return to Cambodia

While the Denver case does not establish that the bell acquired by the Dutch museum in Asten is illicit, it does, however, reveal how narratives once accepted as adequate can later unravel.  References to a “recent find,” coupled with physical evidence of fresh excavation, transformed what might once have been treated as plausible provenance into grounds for forfeiture.  And Latchford's association with other Dong Son bells from Battambang further sharpens our scrutiny of the Dutch bell's collection story.

While there are other instances of bells of this type in circulation within the art market. the parallels in both museum acquisitions are difficult to ignore.  Both the Denver and the Assen bells are stated to have been found in Battambang and both circulated through Thailand where Latchford lived and operated.  

Both also have limited to no documentation with a heavy reliance on the donor or dealer's stated account as to their origins.  And in both cases, institutional approval was based on circumstantial information provided by the individual proffering the work for aquisition or donation.

Marcel Nies has stated in the past that he never sold any piece on behalf of Latchford directly and that he wasn’t aware of the gravity of the allegations against the antiquities dealer until he was indicted.  Despite this, seven artefacts in Nies  publications match to Skanda Trust artefacts which were published in Latchford’s and Emma Bunker's books.  

For cultural policy observers, the comparisons are instructive. It suggests that the absence of disconfirming evidence at a given moment does not resolve underlying uncertainty.  It also highlights the evolving expectations placed on museums today as what was considered reasonable due diligence in the early 2000s may no longer suffice.

Back in 2004, the dissenting member of the Dutch Ethical Commission proposed a straightforward step: consult the source country.  At the time, that suggestion did not prevail.  

Today, direct engagement with source-country authorities and subject matter forensic researchers is increasingly viewed as standard due diligence practice when documentation is incomplete, vague, or contradictory.  The burden of proof is finally shifting toward demonstrating lawful export rather than relying on the absence of proof to the contrary.

This shift reflects broader changes in the governance of cultural property. Source countries have become more assertive in seeking restitution and international cooperation has intensified.  High-profile cases involving traffickers have exposed the fragility of dealer-based narratives where once vague provenance statements like: Private collection Italy, 2000 once sufficed.  As result, forward-thinking museums have responded by strengthening provenance research, enhancing transparency and, in some cases, revisiting past acquisitions.  

The bronze bell purchased in Asten in 2004 sits at the intersection of these complex developments.  The Dutch Ethical Commission concluded that the Assen acquisition complied with the applicable code and that sufficient care had been taken.  Within the framework applied at the time, that conclusion may have been defensible.  Yet the minority opinion and subsequent events invite reconsideration of what sufficiency should mean.

The 1970 Convention remains a cornerstone of international cultural property policy. It provides an essential baseline.  But it was never intended to function as a rubber stamp date for hypothetical transactions that left their countries of origin in circumstances that remain unclear.  Treating 1970 as a bright line can obscure the continuing relevance of domestic export laws and the ethical imperative to seek clarity when doubt arises.

The Asten and Denver bells together illustrate a larger point.  Provenance research is not merely an administrative exercise.  It is an inquiry that unfolds, sometimes over decades, shaped by new evidence, evolving norms and changing relationships between museums, identified bad actors in the art market and source countries. 

Decisions that appeared settled in one decade now look provisional in the next.

By Lynda Albertson

On Monday, the internet lit up after Algemeen Dagblad published an explosive investigation by Peter Schouten, John van den Oetelaar, and Cyril Rosman, revealing the identification of two World War II-era paintings linked to the family of Friedrich Gustav Kadgien, sparking renewed attention to Nazi-looted art hidden abroad.  Kadgien, a Nazi SS officer, served as Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring’s liaison with Swiss banks in his work connected with Germany's Vierjahresplan before splitting for Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay as Germany lost the war.

Friedrich Kadgien's visa for Uruguay.

Building on this revelation, ARCA released its own article yesterday, outlining some of our parallel research into the tragic losses of Amsterdam dealer Jacques Goudstikker, as well as tracing a brief outline of Kadgien’s movements before and after his escape to South America.  As the case remained a developing one, we discussed only the general outlines of our own OSINT and SOCMINT explorations,  in order to give Kadgien's relatives time to respond. 

Today, journalists Schouten and Rosman reported that federal prosecutor Carlos Martínez has opened a case of concealment of smuggling, in cooperation with INTERPOL and the Policía Federal Argentina. As a result of this investigation law enforcement officers from Mar del Plata's Special Investigations Unit executed a search warrant, authorised by the Mar del Plata Court of Guarantees No. 2, which was carried out at a home in Mar del Plata in search of the 17th century painting Portrait of a Lady by Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi, looted during World War II.  Kadgien 's youngest daughter, accompanied by her husband and lawyer, were present during the search.

During the police raid, investigators discovered that the family had removed the artwork, leaving its current whereabouts unknown.  Where it had hung on the wall, a tapestry with a horse had been hung.  Despite this, more than 25 prints from German and French collections from the 1940s were seized, along with relevant documentation, two cell phones, a revolver, and a shotgun.

This painting, by Italian artist Giuseppe Ghislandi, was stolen from Jacques Goudstikker's collection when the Jewish Dutch art dealer fled the Netherlands as it was invaded by Nazi Germany

This case got underway after the artwork depicting Cecilia Colleoni had been discovered in a photograph uploaded for a Robles Casas & Campos real estate advertisement.  The image depicted the 17th century countess behind a green couch next to a wooden and glass tile coffee table, which unfortunately, by mistake or design, forms the shape of a swastika, an ancient religious symbol, adopted by Adolf Hitler to represent the German Reich

The Nazi used the right facing form of a swastika at an angle of 45 degrees with the corners pointing upwards.

Shortly after the news broke in Europe this week, Robles Casas & Campos removed the photos and changed the Mar del Plata housing listing to another property in barrio Parque Luro located 5 km away. Reviewing documents for Argentine companies listed as Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada ARCA found that the original Buenos Aires home, located at Padre Cardiel 4152, Mar del Plata, was owned, and/or occupied, by Kadgien's younger daughter, Patricia Mónica Kadgien and her partner Juan Carlos Cortegoso.  

As the story gained steam within the international press, Patricia Kadgien, who had already stopped communicating with the Dutch journalists, switched all of her social media channels private, as did other relatives and former employees of the family.  As an added precaution, Kadgien, also changed her online name from Patricia Kadgien to Monica Cortegoso.  

But before these changes were made, ARCA had already captured a series of photos posted by the former SS officer's daughter, which were of two additional artworks. 

One was described by the Dutch journalists as a still life painting depicting a crowded display of peaches and other fruit, a bird's nest, insects and a lizard.  This oil painting is believed to have been completed by the German artist Abraham Mignon (1640–1679), and was also being searched for as a World War II era loss by the Dutch Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed. 

ARCA captured a grouping of images of this artwork posted on Kadgien's socials in 2011, which showed what is believed to be the Mignon painting displayed behind three individuals.  While the wall-mounted light illuminating the painting from above causes the artwork to be out of focus, we could clearly see three peaches poking through. 

Still life painting by Abraham Mignon which was known to have been purchased by Friedrich Gustav Kadgien, a lawyer responsible for foreign currency procurement through Swiss front companies for the Vierjahresplan.

Discovered 3rd painting in a rental residence advertised by Kadgien's daughter.

Two of the original images ARCA captured from a 2019 posting before the take-downs occurred, showed the exterior of this property.  One of these corresponds to a newer December 2023 photo uploaded by Kadgien's daughter which depicts the same house, showing a portion of the same veranda and the same white table. 

This third artwork can also be seen in this local Ahora Mar del Plata news site photo, showing that it was seized along with other suspect works when the search warrant was executed.  This painting and these other works on paper, will now need to be sifted through, though we can already see that some of the prints appear to be part of the Henri Matisse. Seize peintures 1939-1943, a First Edition set of 16 Prints

Published by Les Editions du Chene in Paris in 1943. 

For now, the Portrait of a Lady by Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi has not been recovered.  Nor, it seems, has the other high value still life by Abraham Mignon.  One has to hope that Patricia, her husband, her sister Alicia Maria Kadgien or other members of the family, will cooperate more with police and prosecutors than they did with the journalists covering this evolving and long time coming story. 

For our preceding article on this case see this link. 

By Lynda Albertson and Alice Bientinesi

Here is a timeline of how the events in that case developed. 

16 August 2021 - An attempted theft, occurs at around half-past ten at the Zaans Museum in Zaandam, Netherlands