STATUES OF "PURE GOLD."

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18349, 21 August 1929, Page 9

STATUES OF "PURE GOLD."

Paris Dealer Victimised. GILDED BRONZE ORNAMENTS. % United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) PARIS, August 19. An ingenious fraud was perpetrated by a couple of Greeks. One, apparently an ignorant peasant, accompanied by a Greek officer in uniform, allowed it to be known that he was in possession of two ancient statues weighing 1001 b of pure gold. They sought a purchaser in a wily Parisian dealer, who estimated the gold alone to be worth 1.000,000 francs. He came to the hotel, offering 250,000 francs, and stiuplating that he should be allowed to take a sample of the metal. The peasant agreed, and suggested that the sample be taken from under the arms of the statues, in order that their artistic value be not impaired. An analysis showed it to be pure gold, and money was thereupon paid over. The dealer now finds that he paid £2OOO for two pieces of gilded bronze, In which fragments of pure gold were inserted under the arms. The Greeks have disappeared.