The Man Who Stole the Gods: A true story of war, obsession, and a global art conspiracy

Matthew Campbell is an award-winning reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek and the author of The Man Who Stole the Gods: A True Story of War, Obsession, and a Global Art Conspiracy. It tells the astounding true story of how thousands of priceless artworks were looted during national turmoil, war and genocide between the 1960s to the 1990s with thousands of ancient temples and historical sites desecrated. During that period, Douglas Latchford, a British dealer based in Bangkok, was at the heart of a criminal web supplying the collections of American billionaires and cultural institutions.

Campbell has reported from more than 25 countries on topics including crime, corruption, terrorism, economics, public health and the environment. His previous book, Dead in the Water—co-authored with Kit Chellel—was selected as a book of the year by The Economist, the Financial Times and The Times.

Campbell’s work has been recognized with some of the most prestigious honours in journalism. He and Chellel won Gerald Loeb and Overseas Press Club awards for their coverage of Goldman Sachs’ business dealings with Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi, and Campbell has also received National Press Club, SOPA and SABEW awards for feature and investigative reporting.

He is a seven-time Loeb finalist in addition to his win with Chellel, and in 2022 was a finalist for a National Magazine Award for public interest reporting. Campbell was also a 2025 Jonathan Logan Family Foundation Fellow at New America. Born in Canada, he was educated at Yale, where he graduated with a BA in political science, and at Oxford, where he received a Masters of Philosophy in politics. He lives in Singapore with his family.

Moderator: Dominic Faulder, FCCT board member and Nikkei Asia associate editor.

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