Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 3, 1994 TAG: 9411030104
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
But after more than a year of study, a researcher has found that the figurines are made of gold, were created about 1,000 years ago and are worth $125,000 to $500,000.
Sharon L. Hill, director of art education for Norfolk schools, said she pulled the objects out of a safe in a school administration building - where they had been stored in a shoe box for more than two decades - out of curiosity.
After reading books on pre-Columbian art and consulting several experts, Hill took slides of the figurines to an art expert at Dumbarton Oaks, a research center for pre-Columbian art in Washington, D.C.
The woman said the objects almost certainly were made by Veraquas Grand Chiriquis and Teirona Indians, who lived in what is now Costa Rica, Panama and northern Colombia 900 to 1,200 years ago. The brassy color, the expert said, resulted when the Indians mixed other metals with the gold.
The expert soon will visit Norfolk to authenticate the collection, Hill said. The donor is still alive but has refused to reveal his identity.
The figurines - among them chieftains with headdresses grasping rattles, a leopard with a human limb in its mouth, and a turtle with two heads - are on loan to the Chrysler Museum, where they soon will be placed on exhibit.
Hill estimated the value of the objects by comparing them with similar figurines that were sold at Sotheby's auction house in New York.
Hill said she and her colleagues remain as surprised as anyone about the find.
``We were joking that these would make great belt buckles,'' she said. ``We thought they were made of brass.''
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.