The case of the stolen masks

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2024

⏱️ 23 minutes

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Summary

About thirty years ago, Yagya Kumar Pradhan woke up to the news that the temple he and his clan used had been broken into. The temple had been ransacked. And someone had stolen two holy Bhairav masks. Yagya says they had been in his family for more than five hundred years – since the 16th century.

Yagya is a kind of Hindu priest for his clan. And he says, these Bhairav masks were very holy. People made offerings to them during Dashaun, a festival held in the fall.

Yagya thought the masks were gone for good. He didn't realize... they were hiding in plain sight.

On today's show: The story of a group of amateur art detectives who use modern tools, subterfuge, and the power of the law to return stolen artifacts to their rightful owners. And we dive into the world of high-end auctions and art museums to ask: Can the art world survive the legacy of cultural theft?

This episode was hosted by Erika Beras and Nick Fountain. It was produced by James Sneed, edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Transcript

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0:17.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:20.0	One morning 30 years ago, Yagya Kumar Pradon was in his village in Nepal.
0:27.8	He was washing his face at a communal spigot when he got some terrible news.
0:32.8	I was washing my face when someone told me the temple doors had been broken down.
0:41.2	The locks were busted and someone had broken into their private
0:45.1	Hindu temple. Yagya called the police. When they arrived, they all went into the
0:50.9	temple together. Things were overturned, some were broken.
0:54.6	It was a total mess. Small pieces of idols were scattered all over.
1:04.0	Hands were missing and legs were missing from some of the small idols.
1:08.0	And as he looked around, he realized...
1:10.0	They only took the masks.
1:13.0	Two masks had been taken, stolen.
1:17.0	Yagya is kind of a Hindu priest for his clan,
1:20.0	and these two masks had been in his family for more than 500 years since the 16th century.
1:27.0	They're called Byrove masks.
1:30.0	Byrove is a protector god, a caretaker of female gods and energy.
1:34.8	These two masts were ornate, they were a few feet tall, they were coated in copper,
1:39.2	they had skulls and snakes winding through the hair.
1:42.3	And these huge bulging eyes. and these
1:44.2	bulging eyes. And when Yagya was a kid, these masks kind of terrified him.
	...

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