Word: bullion
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Edward Pierce, master criminal, aims to snaffle ?12,000 in old bullion bound for the British troops in the Crimea. Playing between the parlors of the rich and the Dickensian dens of the criminal underworld, the aristocratic thief outwits crushers (cops), noses (informers) and Establishment nibs to assemble the four keys needed to grab the gold. By subversion, bribery and tricks far dirtier than the king's men ever dreamed of, the ringleader and his scruffy accomplices come within a sniff of the swag, only to meet their greatest obstacle: an obscure law of physics...
...Vietnamese persisted. What if they spread the bullion on pallets so the weight could be distributed? The Swiss again demurred, this time pointing out that Balair had received overflight permission only for humanitarian purposes. Thus when the DC-8 stopped for refueling in Bangkok and Bahrain, the cargo might be inspected. Only then did the Vietnamese back off; they realized that either the Thais or Bahrainis could confiscate the hoard without compensation. At week's end the bullion was apparently still in Saigon-palletized and awaiting a more willing air carrier...
Preserved by Ice. These included gold. The Scythians were rich. They wrung tribute from every caravan that crossed the steppes, and they carried their gold not as raw bullion but as flamboyant ornament. Other materials went to dust?except for some ornaments of wood or cloth, such as the elegant swan made of felt stuffed with reindeer hair (see color opposite) that was discovered, preserved by ice for almost 2½ millennia, in a tomb in the Altai Mountains of Siberia. Yet the gold survived. Almost all the major examples of Scythian gold have remained in the U.S.S.R...
...witless journalists whose only peg for discussing art is its price; by collectors who grub for investment; and by the horde of dealers, ranging from the little sharks to the dignified auction-room gents with faces like silver teapots, who have striven to give art the primary function of bullion. The present epidemic of art theft is ultimately their responsibility. In one day last week, in one Italian district-the Abruzzi-thieves made off with a 12th century Madonna and Child, a 13th century reclining Madonna and a 14th century silver reliquary attributed to Giacomo di Sulmona. In the whole...
...auction-a tidy 300% profit. More important, as Washington had intended, the sale helped to dampen further the hopes of speculators that great numbers of Americans would rush to trade dollars for the yellow metal after it became legal for them to own bullion on Dec. 31. Bullion bulls in Europe and the Middle East were only temporarily distressed by the American disinterest, however. In a show of confidence that legal gold would yet glitter for them, they bid the price back up to $178 on the London market by week...