Emma C. Bunker

Emma Cadwalader Bunker (19 June 1930, Haverford, Pennsylvania — 21 Feb. 2021, Denver, Colorado, USA) was an American scholar, archeologist, professor and author specializing in Eurasia, China and Cambodia and Asian art, whose reputation was posthumously ruined for her association with British art dealer and smuggler Douglas Latchford (1931−2020), and her implication in looted Khmer artifacts illegal trading.

According to the laudatory obituary The Denver Post published after her death, “she taught Art History at the Colorado College and mentored many aspiring scholars and artists. She served on numerous boards and committees of art museums and cultural institutions including Denver Art Museum, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Freer and Sackler Gallery, Center for Khmer Studies and Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.” Along with Latchford, she gained the trust of several Southeast Asian museums, acting as unofficial advisor to the National Museum of Cambodia for several years.

One year later, however, that same newspaper ran a scathing report accusing her of using the Denver Art Museum — where an entire gallery still beared her name — as a “laundromat” for stolen Khmer sculptures. In a subsequent editorial, the newspaper’s editorial board stated: “We are dismayed that Christoph Heinrich, the director of the Denver Art Museum, has not publicly responded to the scandal. We worry the institution is hoping the storm will blow over without having to address the fact that not only is the museum housing artwork that was likely smuggled into the U.S. by art dealer Douglas Latchford and then legitimized by The Scholar Emma C. Bunker, but the Denver Art Museum’s complicity also helped give these two people legitimacy in the eyes of other buyers.”

This is a rare instance of an internationally-recognized researcher being named as an active accomplice in art trafficking. Emma “Emmy” Bunker’s husband, John Bunker, a wealthy businessman and the son of businessman and diplomat Ellsworth F. Bunker (1894−1984) — appointed US Ambassador to South Vietnam by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967 – 1973 and a staunch supporter of US incursions into Laos and Cambodia — was also a donator to the Denver Museum and used to give lectures on “business ethics”. John Bunker worked for National Sugar Refining, a company founded by his grand-father and headed by his father.

Quite ironically, the three books she co-authored with Douglas Latchford in 2004, 2008 and 2011, have reached astronomical prices on the rare and second-hand book market since the accomplices have gone to a better world.

1) Among her more than 50 published works, Emma Bunker co-authored with Latchford three volumes dedicated to Ancient Khmer artifacts, including **Adoration and Glory: The Golden Age of Khmer Art**, a book still often quoted by art historians. 2) “Floating Lotus Group” visit to Ta Prohm in 2003, one of the “tours” planned by Douglas Latchford for gullible followers, including here “Emmy” Bunker, her daughter and grand-daughter, as well as **Donna Strahan** (mispelled Straham in the caption), a curator of USA museums who specialized in Thai sculptures. [source: *Orientations* magazine, April 2004, p. 73]

Selected Publications

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“The Style of the Trubner Stele,” Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America 19 (1965): 26 – 32.
“Early Chinese Representations of Vimalakīrti”, Artibus Asiae (ArAs) 30 – 1, 1968: 28 – 52.
[with C. Bruce Chatwin & Ann R. Farkas] ‘Animal Style’: Art from East to West, New York, The Asia Society, 1970, 186 p.
“Pre-Angkor Period Bronzes from Pra Kon Chai”, Archives of Asian Art 25, 1971/1972: 67 – 76.
“Sources of Foreign Elements in the Culture of Eastern Zhou,” in George Kuwayama, ed., The Great Bronze Age of China, Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1983, pp. 84 – 93.
“The Steppe Connection (Research Note)”, Early China ⁹⁄₁₀, 1983 – 1985: 70 – 76.
“The Art of Eastern and Southern Africa”, African Arts 21 – 3, May 1988: 76.
[with Jessica Rawson] Ancient Chinese and Ordos bronzes : catalogue of an exhibition presented jointly by the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong and the Urban Council of Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, 12 October to 2 December 1990, Hong Kong, Oriental Ceramic Society, 1990, 362 p.
[introduction with Annette L. Juliano, Trudy S. Kawami & Judith Lerner to] The Dating of Pazyryk, Notes in the History of Art 10 – 4, 1991:4 – 6.
“The Chinese artifacts among the Pazyryk Finds,” Notes in the History of Art 10 – 4 (Summer 1991), pp. 20 – 24.
“Significant Changes in Iconography and Technology among Ancient China’s Northwestern Pastoral Neighbors from the Fourth to the First Century B.C.”, Bulletin of the Asia Institute ns. 6, 1992: 99 – 115.
“Gold in the Ancient Chinese World: A Cultural Puzzle”, Artibus Asiae 53−1÷2, 1993: 27 – 50.
[with Julia White] Adornment for Eternity, Status and Rank in Chinese Ornament, Denver Art Museum, 1994.
[with Jenny F. So] Traders and Raiders on China’s Northern Frontier, Washingtion DC, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Smithsonian Institution) with University of Washington Press, 1995.
[with Trudy S. Kawami, Katheryn M. Linduff, Wu En & Harry N. Abrams] Ancient Bronzes of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes from the Arthur M.Sackler Collections, New York, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation (distributed by Harry N. Abrams, Inc.), 1997, 401 p.
‘Harihara Images of the Pre-Angkor Period in Cambodia,’ Arts of Asia 31 – 2, March-April 2001.
[with James C. Watt and Zhixin Sun] Nomadic Art of the East Eurasian Steppes, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. 248 p.
[with D. Latchford] Adoration and Glory: The Golden Age of Khmer Art, Chicago/Bangkok: Art Media Resources, 2004, 520 p. ISBN13 ‎978 – 1588860705.
[with D. Latchford] Khmer Gold, Chicago/Bangkok: Art Media Resources, 2008, 147 p. ISBN13 978 – 1588860972.
[with D. Latchford] Khmer Bronzes. New Interpretations of the Past, Chicago/Bangkok : Art Media Resources, 2011, 544 p. ISBN13 978 – 1588861115.
[with Peter D. Sharrock] “Seeds of Vajrabodhi: Buddhist Ritual Bronzes from Java and Khorat,” in Esoteric Buddhism in Mediaeval Maritime Asia: Networks of Masters, Texts, Icons, Andrea Acri ed., Singapore: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, 2016: 237 – 252.
Katheryn M. Linduff & Karen S. Rubinson eds., How Objects Tell Stories: Essays in Honor of Emma C. Bunker (Inner and Central Asian Art and Archaeology), Brepols Editions, 2018.