Bone dagger in missing artefacts : "VALUABLE Papua New Guinean artefacts including a weapon made from a human bone have mysteriously disappeared during a delivery in Melbourne.
The 17kg package of rare museum pieces worth up to $60,000 reportedly fell from an Australia Post delivery van and was lost in traffic.
Sydney gallery owner Todd Barlin is desperate to get the artefacts back and has offered a $5000 reward, no questions asked, for their return."
The package literally fell off the back of a post truck and they can't find it! I am so surprised something as valuable as these things were sent through the post. Very odd. They weren't insured either and apparently will be of no value to anyone else. Apparently Australia Post hasn't been very helpful. This hasn't been my experience. In fact, one of my packages had been involved in a truck accident and arrived at my home carefully resealed with an apoplgetic explanation attached and when I checked all the somewhat squased but not damaged contents had been carefully rewrapped and sealed. I could not have asked for better service. But I guess it's who deals with the mishap. I have just finished reading a book about Papua New Guinea and the beliefs of its people and how western civilisation is affecting it. There was one excellent essay about the removal of artifacts from the tribes and how they were totally devalued and meaningless out of context but how many of these artefacts had been imbued with the power of strong cultural history , tradition and the knowledge of the ancestors. How it was silly to take them away and show them out of context and how even tribal members found it hard to understand the full meaning and potency of these artefects. That it was all part of the cultual experience of their land and your voyage as a member of that community. So maybe the artefacts know what they are doing and have gone to where they belong! I hope they are found and returned to the legal owner.
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