A piece of history
THE FIJI TIMES
IN 1986 the owner of a pure gold mask, Himmat Lodhia of Lords Jewellers in Suva, reckoned he had in his possession the national treasure of another country.
At first glance, it appeared to be rather crudely fashioned and unimpressive, but a closer look at the artifact showed it was worth more than its weight in gold.
Mr Lodhia paid $2000 for the 68 gram flat piece of 22 carat gold. He bought it from a local millionaire who acquired it from a Cambodian refugee.
“It is obviously pillaged from a museum, it even has an identification number at the back,” said Mr Lodhia.
An article in The Fiji Times reported on September 9, 1986 was able to clearly describe the features of this artifact.
The face on the mask was made from very crude hand tools and was hurriedly fashioned when the gold was molten.
Something resembling a human face was carved onto the gold. A ridge scratched in the middle of the face is the nose which breaks into two ridges at the top of the nose to form eyebrows which went on to form the ears.
The larger ear circles had smaller circles and these had dust in them, possibly thousands of years old.
The ridges continued to give some shape to the lower part of the face. The eyes were two little dots with rather pronounced eyelashes.
There were six little holes on the edges of the mask, showing that the mask was most likely nailed down on something – such as a coffin.
“There are some rust-like deposits on the back of the gold mask which can be, got rid of by polishing but I have chosen not to in case they are important identifying clues,” said Mr Lodhia.
With the mask came a separate piece of chipped wood, with halfcompleted sentences in unfamiliar and complicated writing.
Mr Lodhia said experts were welcomed to examine what he believed was a thousand-year-old artifact.
“If I have a piece of history, then I would like to keep it, but if it belongs to another country then they can claim their treasure back,” he said.
“As long as they pay the $2000,” he added.