and was validated as legitimate bidder, the bidder, bidding by phone. wing item after item, after item t the owner of the auction house expressed annoyance. they want to cultivate a collector class. the auction house said leave some for the others. meanwhile, members of the hopi tribe were watching the auction on line, heartbroken after losing their battle in court. the best hope was that the items would not sell. that would at least leave them some other opportunity some day to try to get them back. the bidder on the phone kept buying up item after item after item always being the highest bidder. cultural director for the hopi toemd the new york times when he turned out his lights at 2:00 a.m., he felt he was saying good-bye to the spirits embodied in the headdresses. when he turned on his lights the next day, the news was very different. because the it turns out the anonymous bidder who was gobbling up the pieces at the auction who had successfully bid on 21 of 24 artifacts on the
at auction for the sole purpose of returning the objects to the hopi people. never had any intention of keeping them. but they thought it had to be secret. if any body got wind they were in high demand and one organization was trying to buy the whole collection that would have driven up the prices. so they kept their plan under wraps. they did not tell the tribe. they pulled it off. the foundation had never done anything like it. the foundation succeeded in rescuing 21 of 249 sacred objects. they spent more than $500,000 of the foundation s money to do it. of the three that they did not get, turns out that one of the three was bought by somebody else who had planned to give it back to the tribe. so, yes, the hopi tribe did lose two of the 24 of these religious beings that they stood to lose, objects they believe are spiritual objects and living things. they lost two. but they seem very thrilled to
block turns out to be a u.s. based philanthropic group, the annenberg organization, working with the hopi and u.s. embassy. a secret spy operation. they secretly purchased almost every single one of the sacred items as many as they could win at auction for the sole purpose of returning the objects to the hopi people. never had any intention of keeping them. but they thought it had to be secret. if any body got wind they were in high demand and one organization was trying to buy the whole collection that would have driven up the prices. so they kept their plan under wraps. they did not tell the tribe. they pulled it off. the foundation had never done anything like it. the foundation succeeded in rescuing 21 of 249 sacred objects. they spent more than $500,000 of the foundation s money to do it. of the three that they did not get, turns out that one of the three was bought by somebody else who had planned to give it back to the tribe.
wing item after item, after item t the owner of the auction house expressed annoyance. they want to cultivate a collector class. the auction house said leave some for the others. meanwhile, members of the hopi tribe were watching the auction on line, heartbroken after losing their battle in court. the best hope was that the items would not sell. that would at least leave them some other opportunity some day to try to get them back. the bidder on the phone kept buying up item after item after item always being the highest bidder. cultural director for the hopi told the new york times when he turned out his lights at 2:00 a.m., he felt he was saying good-bye to the spirits embodied in the headdresses. when he turned on his lights the next day, the news was very different. because the it turns out the anonymous bidder who was gobbling up the pieces at the auction who had successfully bid on 21 of 24 artifacts on the block turns out to be a u.s. based philanthropic group, the annenberg o
shown to any other religion. so we will shot show any pictures of the objects here tonight. back in a rim, the paris auction house ignored all the pleas and appropriate tests and diplomatic maneuvers by the united states to stop the sale and return the objects to the hopi people. the auction house sold 70 sacred i tmz items. they made a tidy profit. and just last week it looked like it was all going to happen again. another french auction house had gotten its hands on 24 more of these sacred mask-like objects. they were planning on auctioning them off. hopi took the auction house to court. trying to block the sale. fault it hard as they could. december 6th. a judge ruled against them saying there was nothing in french law that could stop the sale, so the auction was set for december 9th. on december 9th. the auction began. and as auctions go it went well. turns out an anonymous bidder had wired money ahead of time