Episode 6: “Curiosity Killed the Cat”

The Illuminator is OUT NOW. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts to listen ad-free. Mark Lombardi, a conceptual artist on the cusp of international success, had everything to live for. So why was the 48-year-old found hanged and deemed suicidal? Was his death the ultimate conceptual art, an afterlife laugh at those who doubted his brilliance? He did, after all, carry business cards eerily portending "death defying acts of art and conspiracy."  Or was he ultimately overwhelmed by the subject of his work: the financial networks connecting some of the most powerful and corrupt people on earth?  His intricate drawings traced hot money, from Cold War funding to the heroin trade. But his most dogged scrutiny fell on the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, a global money laundry bankrolling fraudsters, smugglers, and CIA operations abroad. Since his death, Lombardi's masterwork on the rogue bank has been held at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Could it be responsible for his demise? The answer can only be found within Lombardi himself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://brazen.fm/plus/

In this bonus episode, we bring you an expert panel on Cambodian art restitution, live from New York. Back in February, Dynamite Doug marked its launch with a symposium tackling Cambodia’s stolen heritage and the Met’s problem with trafficked art head on. The panel included Sopheap Meas, a Cambodian archaeologist working on the return of art; famed Cambodian dancer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro; American lawyer Brad Gordon, appointed by Cambodia’s culture minister to work on art repatriation; Gary Vikan, former director of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; and Jason Felch, author of “Chasing Aphrodite, the Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum. The conversation was moderated by Tom Wright, co-founder of Project Brazen, with opening remarks from Ellen Wong, podcast host of Dynamite Doug. To watch a live stream of the symposium in full, search for ‘Dynamite Doug’ on YouTube. www.dynamitedoug.com Dynamite Doug is a Project Brazen production. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts and get exclusive bonus episodes, ad-free listening and early access to new podcasts. For more fearless storytelling visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works – from espionage and corruption to deal-making and organised crime, we’ll take you inside stories from hidden worlds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://brazen.fm/plus/

If you’ve been listening to Dynamite Doug, you know it focuses on the looting of Cambodia’s art, and how so many priceless statues wound up in Western museums or with rich collectors. In this bonus episode of Dynamite Doug, Project Brazen reporter Neha Wadekar travels to Kenya to see how it is responding to the loss of its own cultural heritage to traders and colonizers. More than 32,000 Kenyan cultural artifacts, ranging from drinking gourds to tribal belts and ceremonial shields, live in museums around the world, and are largely inaccessible to Kenyan people. Kenyan artists and technologists are working to digitally catalog these items and bring them to life through 3D printing and virtual reality — but critics say it’s no replacement for repatriation. www.thelootmuseum.com Dynamite Doug is a Project Brazen production. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts and get exclusive bonus episodes, ad-free listening and early access to new podcasts. For more fearless storytelling visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works – from espionage and corruption to deal-making and organised crime, we’ll take you inside stories from hidden worlds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://brazen.fm/plus/

Emma faces up to what she’s done as Douglas is finally brought low, and Cambodia begins the gargantuan task of bringing its art back home. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Museum fights a rearguard action to cling on to its collection…a struggle that’s still raging. Dynamite Doug is a Project Brazen production. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts and get exclusive bonus episodes, ad-free listening and early access to new podcasts. For more fearless storytelling visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works – from espionage and corruption to deal-making and organised crime, we’ll take you inside stories from hidden worlds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://brazen.fm/plus/

A former Khmer Rouge child soldier, Toek Tik, codenamed “The Lion,” helps the Cambodian government identify looted statues. Eventually Sotheby’s agrees to return its piece.  Douglas keeps on looting but he’s on the radar of investigators at the Department of Homeland Security. When a New York dealer is arrested, Douglas and Emma are the focus of a criminal investigation. Dynamite Doug is a Project Brazen production. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts and get exclusive bonus episodes, ad-free listening and early access to new podcasts. For more fearless storytelling visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works – from espionage and corruption to deal-making and organised crime, we’ll take you inside stories from hidden worlds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://brazen.fm/plus/

A British conservator comes across a pair of stone feet in a Cambodian jungle temple. His sleuthing leads him to deduce the feet belong to a statue in a U.S. museum and the trail leads to Douglas, the most serious scrutiny yet. Emma Bunker helps Douglas create fake documents to cover up his looting. But when a Cambodian statue goes on sale in Sotheby’s in New York, Douglas is tied up in a lawsuit and his name splashed in the newspapers for the first time. Dynamite Doug is a Project Brazen production. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts and get exclusive bonus episodes, ad-free listening and early access to new podcasts. For more fearless storytelling visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works – from espionage and corruption to deal-making and organised crime, we’ll take you inside stories from hidden worlds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://brazen.fm/plus/

As Cambodia opens to the world, the looting enters a new phase as a hoard of Western collectors descend on the nation. Douglas becomes rich, with a chauffeured Rolls Royce in London, and he grows close to the Denver-based academic, Emma Bunker. He’s soon using Emma’s scholarship as cover for his looting. Amid questions from the UN, Douglas starts to return statues to Cambodia, and is awarded a knighthood. Dynamite Doug is a Project Brazen production. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts and get exclusive bonus episodes, ad-free listening and early access to new podcasts. For more fearless storytelling visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works – from espionage and corruption to deal-making and organised crime, we’ll take you inside stories from hidden worlds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://brazen.fm/plus/

When the genocidal Khmer Rouge takes over Cambodia, killing 2 million people, Douglas senses an opportunity. Amid the bloodshed, murderous generals rob the nation blind – hacking statues out of jungle temples – and Douglas is a willing buyer. A senior curator at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and a Denver-based academic are eager participants in Douglas’ schemes. Dynamite Doug is a Project Brazen production. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts and get exclusive bonus episodes, ad-free listening and early access to new podcasts. For more fearless storytelling visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works – from espionage and corruption to deal-making and organised crime, we’ll take you inside stories from hidden worlds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://brazen.fm/plus/

How Douglas Latchford, a nobody from colonial India, makes a name for himself dealing in Cambodian art. It’s the 1960s, and no one cares about Westerners stealing ancient statues from poor countries to sell in London and New York. But, as attitudes start to change, gossip mounts about Douglas. Dynamite Doug is a Project Brazen production. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts and get exclusive bonus episodes, ad-free listening and early access to new podcasts. For more fearless storytelling visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works – from espionage and corruption to deal-making and organised crime, we’ll take you inside stories from hidden worlds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://brazen.fm/plus/

How one man carried out the greatest art heist in history – the looting of Cambodia’s entire cultural heritage – with the aid of Western academics, dealers and curators. This is the story the art world doesn’t want told. Dynamite Doug is a Project Brazen production. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts and get exclusive bonus episodes, ad-free listening and early access to new podcasts. For more fearless storytelling visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works – from espionage and corruption to deal-making and organised crime, we’ll take you inside stories from hidden worlds. www.dynamitedoug.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://brazen.fm/plus/