From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to the gilded halls of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, a tale of stolen treasures and the battle to reclaim a nation’s soul.

Amidst the chaos of Cambodia’s brutal genocide, a new crime wave emerged—one that would sweep across borders and entangle the world’s most prestigious art institutions. Priceless treasures of the ancient Khmer Empire, the civilization that produced Angkor Wat, vanished from sacred temples, looted by smugglers and trafficked into the hands of elite collectors. At the center of it all was a man named Douglas Latchford. 

Known later as “Dynamite Doug” for the ruthless methods used to extract statues from temple ruins, Latchford orchestrated one of history’s most audacious cultural heists. From dusty Cambodian villages to the glittering auction houses of London and New York and institutions like the Met, he played a double game—posing as an expert on Khmer art while secretly flooding the market with stolen antiquities. 

In The Man Who Stole the Gods, award-winning journalist Matthew Campbell unravels the gripping, stranger-than-fiction story of Latchford’s criminal enterprise, and a global conspiracy of greed, corruption, and complicity—one that involves some of the world’s most powerful museums, collectors, and auction houses. 

A masterful blend of true crime, history, and investigative journalism, drawing on years of reporting and more than 100 interviews, The Man Who Stole the Gods is the definitive account of one man’s greed, an industry’s complicity, and the fight to expose the truth and restore stolen treasures to their rightful home.

Praise:

“Extraordinary...The incredible story of Latchford’s life and crimes alone would make The Man Who Stole The Gods well worth reading, but its author, the journalist Matthew Campbell, positions his wrongdoing within a much wider context...It’s greatly reassuring that the arc of this fascinating and scrupulously researched story bends finally towards justice.”
—Financial Times

“Fascinating...The Man Who Stole the Gods reads like a thriller...the story romps along with dogged lawyers and a ludicrous, devious antagonist.”
—The Economist

“Gripping and shocking...[Campbell] is a master storyteller...a can’t-put-it-down narrative.”
— The Globe and Mail

“Painstakingly researched and paced like a thriller, this sweeping, cinematic account weaves together true crime and Asian history to shine a light on a little-explored art world scandal. It’s a breathtaking ride.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Gripping...The Man Who Stole the Gods is a salutary page-turner, an expertly woven and eye-opening story of cultural looting and repair that builds to a thrilling coda.”
—Nikkei Asia

“A cross between a well-reported exposé and...a page-turning true-crime procedural. There are shady art dealers, greedy museum curators, Khmer Rouge guerillas, American tycoons turned art collectors, indefatigable Feds, honest lawyers, Thai body-builders: everything needed for a multi-episode TV docudrama…Campbell excels at building a narrative."
—Asian Review of Books

“Shocking…a race against time.”
—The New York Times

“Unforgettable...a a fascinating chronology of crime on a grand scale.”
— The Winnipeg Free Press

“Thought-provoking true crime on a grand scale.”
—Kirkus

“Wildly compelling...investigated with great skill and depth.”
—CrimeReads

“As unnerving as it is engrossing...unfurls like a global detective novel.”
—The Irish News

“For those who loved The Art Thief, or any page-turning history of true crime, Matthew Campbell’s latest should be on your radar. In The Man Who Stole the Gods, Campbell takes us behind the scenes to understand how a white man in Cambodia pilfered local statues, temples, and art, making millions and selling to Western museums like the Met, who were eager to expand their collections—and as Campbell shows, incredibly unscrupulously. A fascinating, page-turning story of an art heist where the pilfered works are still on view today at some of the most storied institutions in the world.”
—Amazon Book Review

“The gripping biography of a daring art thief and his audacious heist.”
—The Dallas Express

“Reads like a thriller while laying out the entwined histories of the Cambodian genocide and the rapacious hunger of Western collectors for the images of Hindu and Buddhist deities.”
—Hyperallergic

“An epic tale of art, war, and crime, The Man Who Stole the Gods unspools a sprawling conspiracy of tomb raiders, art dealers, and museum curators, with one elusive expatriate at the heart of it all. Campbell brings the story to life with brisk pacing, an instinct for drama, and a firm grasp of the moral and historical stakes.”
—Stuart A. Reid, senior fellow for history and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of The Lumumba Plot

“The Man Who Stole the Gods transcends reportage, marrying investigative rigor to the emotional force of great fiction. Propulsive and devastating, it traces a story of greed and violence that opens, finally, onto redemption, rendered with exceptional clarity and insight.”
—Katie Engelhart, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Inevitable

“The Man Who Stole the Gods is both an archaeological adventure to rival David Grann’s Lost City of Z, and a riveting exposé of the plunder that still fills the world’s top art museums.”
—Zeke Faux, author of Number Go Up

“Masterfully reported and beautifully told, The Man Who Stole the Gods is a piercing indictment of our unequal world. It reads like a thriller, starring elite curators, business moguls, despots, freedom fighters, and one of the most fascinating anti- heroes in modern memory.”
—Sheelah Kolhatkar, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of Black Edge