Word: columbian
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Farmer's Choice. Farm-fresh eggs; creamery butter; hearty Columbian java; stacks of extra chrisp toast with rasher of Canadian bacon...
Because the value of pre-Columbian art spirals upward faster than California real estate, even the largest treasures are not safe. Last month a quarter-ton stone figure of an ancient priest chewing coca, known as El Coquero and dating back some 3,000 years, vanished from its site in San Agustin in southwest Colombia. Ecuadorian officials are trying to retrieve an entire 11,000-item collection of Andean treasures that somehow managed to turn up in Milan and Turin, where they were being put up for sale...
...curtail assaults on their history, Latin American governments have passed stiff new laws against smuggling, stepped up customs inspections and exerted pressure on other governments to cooperate in the fight against the thefts. The U.S., for its part, has made it illegal to import any pre-Columbian object without the approval of its country of origin, and customs officials have become more vigilant...
Museums and prominent art dealers, too, are more careful about acquiring pre-Columbian art. As a result, several stolen treasures have been quietly returned from the U.S. Among them: a rose-colored panel dominated by the Mayan sun god, taken from a temple in the Mexican state of Campeche, and part of an ancient staircase from Tamarindito in Guatemala...
...guard all of them." Peru must try to protect the remains of diverse cultures spanning more than 3,000 years. Even when guards and inspections are used, some officials concede that bribery often eases the way for thefts. Yet another complication is a thriving trade in bogus pre-Columbian pieces. Often using the same techniques as their ancestors, the forgers are so skilled that even experts can have trouble distinguishing the fakes...