“An investigation into how Emma C. Bunker helped Douglas Latchford sell stolen Cambodian antiquities.”
art
Posted inEditor's Pick
An Art Crime for the Ages
In the second half of the 20th century, Bangkok-based British businessman Douglas Latchford was at the center of an operation that trafficked ancient Khmer sculptures and archaeological treasures out of Cambodia. These pieces of art traveled far, ending up in rich people’s homes and museums like the Met. Matthew Campbell tells an engrossing story filled with […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
‘The Ways of Fiction Are Devious Indeed’
Sands Hall, a playwright and daughter of author Oakley Hall, digs into the work of Wallace Stegner — specifically his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Angle of Repose, which is based on the life of Mary Hallock Foote. “[W]e often fold in the real with the invented,” writes Hall, but when does inspiration become plagiarism? Yet in […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Reading List: Who’s Your Susan Sontag?
Five longreads about the iconoclastic American writer, director, and activist.
Posted inNonfiction
‘Raphael Couldn’t Have Painted Something More Beautiful’
The couple who saved an imprisoned artist’s life — and the extraordinary gift he gave in return.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Futures From Ruins
Bombay Beach was once a vibrant resort town on the Salton Sea until agricultural pollution, drought, and toxic air led to its demise. Today, an art movement and emerging community hope to bring it back. In this Noema essay, writer Johanna Hoffman and photographer Tao Ruspoli show how a town in ruins is experiencing a […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Ambiguous Loss of (Probably) Not Selling My Novel
In a period of trying to sell her novel, Danielle Lazarin reflects on art, waiting, and the space between grief and hope.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Did Paying a Ransom for a Stolen Magritte Painting Inadvertently Fund Terrorism?
“Modern art crime, like the arms trade, still thrives in the shadow of global conflict, which gives rise to criminal networks that make from the detritus of war immensely profitable commodities.”