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People who walk through the wonderful temples of South
East Asia often notice something strange about many of the statues: their heads
are missing. The fact is that many of these cultural
treasures from Cambodia, Indonesia and Burma are being stolen, and then sold openly
in places such as Bangkok. Recently a journalist walked
into one of these art shops and asked how it was possible to get such stolen art
through customs at the airport. The owner of the shop
said that he would give him one certificate to prove that the head was an imitation,
for the customs officers at the airport, and another certificate to prove that
it was genuine in case he wanted to sell it back in the United States. It
seems as if, as long as there are rich people who want to buy these statues, there
will be poor people who are prepared to risk stealing them. For
a few thousand dollars people from Europe, America or Japan can have an original
Asian work of art in their living room. However, for
a fraction of the price, you can buy a very good reproduction made by one of the
highly-skilled craftsmen in the region. However, when
these rich tourists are buying what they think is original art, how do they know
that they aren't buying reproductions anyway? | 
