was a bit clandestine. the egyptian man, whom i understood to be the owner of the papyri, gave me the impression of being very tense, very wired and keyed up. i had the impression that he might be the kind of person who would carry a gun. emmel and his colleagues are being pressured to decide their value even without knowing exactly what these pages are from. i began to see the name judas. but it was a work in coptic that i wasn t familiar with. we were interested in buying them. what was the price? and then came a bombshell. the man wanted $3 million. this is far more than they can afford. the egyptian man signaled to his associate to close up the boxes, and that was the end of the meeting.
1978: a mysterious stone box is unearthed in the egyptian desert. it contains what appears to be a biblical text written in an ancient language. no one yet knows what it says. it s like a cross between the maltese falcon and an indiana jones movie. this intriguing document enters the shady world of the antiquities black market and surfaces in geneva. that s where the banks are. that s where the rich people are. it s the glitziest black market you ve ever seen. stephen emmel, a specialist in ancient languages, arrives in switzerland to investigate. the egyptian government doesn t give permission to remove artifacts unless they ve been part of an archaeological undertaking, so we assume that the manuscripts are illegal. the whole feeling of the meeting
no one yet knows what it says. it s like a cross between the maltese falcon and an indiana jones movie. this intriguing document enters the shady world of the antiquities black market and surfaces in geneva. that s where the banks are. that s where the rich people are. it s the glitziest black market you ve ever seen. stephen emmel, a specialist in ancient languages, arrives in switzerland to investigate. the egyptian government doesn t give permission to remove artifacts unless they ve been part of an archaeological undertaking, so we assume that the manuscripts are illegal. the whole feeling of the meeting was a bit clandestine. the egyptian man, whom i understood to be the owner of the papyri, gave me the
impression of being very tense, very wired and keyed up. i had the impression that he might be the kind of person who would carry a gun. emmel and his colleagues are being pressured to decide their value even without knowing exactly what these pages are from. i began to see the name judas. but it was a work in coptic that i wasn t familiar with. we were interested in buying them. what was the price? and then came a bombshell. the man wanted $3 million dollars. this is far more than they can afford. the egyptian man signaled to his associate to close up the boxes, and that was the end of the meeting. a year after i saw the coptic codex in geneva, the egyptian owner took it to new york city
biblical text written in an ancient language. no one yet knows what it says. it s like a cross between the maltese falcon and an indiana jones movie. this intriguing document enters the shady world of the antiquities black market and surfaces in geneva. that s where the banks are. that s where the rich people are. it s the glitziest black market you ve ever seen. stephen emmel, a specialist in ancient languages, arrives in switzerland to investigate. the egyptian government doesn t give permission to remove artifacts unless they ve been part of an archaeological undertaking. so we assume that the manuscripts are illegal. the whole feeling of the meeting was a bit clandestine. the egyptian man whom i understood to be the owner of the papyri gave me the