Artifacts

A rare Islamic crystal jug that was mistaken earlier this year for a cheap French claret pitcher has sold at auction for almost $5.6 million. An anonymous bidder bought the 1,000-year-old rock crystal ewer -- one of only seven of its kind known to exist -- during a sale of Islamic and Indian art at Christie's auction house in London. The sale price of $5.58 million includes the buyer's premium. In January, Lawrences auction house in southwest England identified the object as a 19th century French claret jug and offered it for sale for $175 to $350.

Violence has fallen across Iraq in recent months and artifacts of the country's National Museum are trickling back -- about 6,000 have been returned of the 15,000 or so that went missing in the chaos that erupted following the U.S. invasion in 2003. But Iraqi authorities are taking no chances, and will not reopen the museum until security is assured. "We cannot risk displaying the treasures we have unless we have guarantees that security is 100% stable in Baghdad and the area surrounding the museum," Amira Eidan, director of Iraq's antiquities and museums, said in an interview.

The ancient marble head of a youth was fitted into place Wednesday at a museum in Athens in a deal that Greek officials hope will serve as a model for returning other treasures. The one-year loan from the Vatican's Museo Gregoriano Etrusco could be used as a way to regain other iconic Parthenon sculptures that have been systematically removed from Greece in the past. Several European museums -- especially the British Museum in London -- hold Parthenon artifacts, and Greece has long campaigned for their return.

A father and son from Northern California have pleaded not guilty to charges alleging that they illegally collected Indian artifacts in Nevada. Donald Parker, who is 69, and his 42-year-old son, Steven Parker, were arraigned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento. They are charged with conspiracy, possessing stolen federal property, interstate transportation and transporting artifacts taken from public lands. Assistant Federal Defender Lauren Day Cusick, representing Steven Parker, said she had no further information on the case and could not immediately comment.

Six stained-glass windowpanes missing since World War II returned home Monday to a church in the eastern German town of Frankfurt an der Oder, 67 years after they were removed to protect them from war damage. The 600-year-old Gothic windows of the St. Marienkirche were packed in boxes and sent to Potsdam for safekeeping in 1941, according to a statement from the city of Frankfurt an der Oder, which is about 60 miles east of Berlin on the Polish border. After the war, Soviet troops shipped them home as booty.

More than 15 years of acrimony came to an end Saturday when about 1,000 Native American remains that had been exhumed during construction were laid to rest and covered with white seashells during a sacred burial ceremony near the Westchester bluffs.

Napoleon and Egypt, in Paris A brash young Western leader invades a Middle East country, ostensibly to spread democratic ideals. Instead he winds up resented by the locals and strengthening his rivals, who immediately exploit his weaknesses. We're talking, of course, about Napoleon Bonaparte, the French general whose forces invaded and briefly occupied Egypt nine years after a cataclysmic revolution. His late-18th century adventures in the land of the Pharaohs are chronicled and dissected in "Bonaparte and Egypt," a fascinating and extensive exhibit of paintings, manuscripts and artifacts at the gigantic Institut du Monde Arabe along the Seine River in Paris.

NASA is telling museums that covet a retired space shuttle that it's going to cost them. How much? A mere $42 million -- including $6 million for shipping and handling. Too pricey? NASA also is offering shuttle main engines for anywhere between $400,000 and $800,000, plus shipping. The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington is expected to get one shuttle after the craft are retired in 2010. The remaining two would be stored at Kennedy Space Center until their final homes were decided.

A spectacular array of totem poles greeted me as I stepped from the bus at Thunderbird Park, a prime tourist attraction in downtown Victoria. Not far away, at the Royal British Columbia Museum, I found another collection -- among them some of the world's oldest known totem poles. It was my first encounter with this fascinating world of aboriginal culture and art.

Archeologists working near Stonehenge in England have discovered what appears to be an ancient religious complex containing a wealth of artifacts that may finally illuminate the lives and religious practices of the people who built the mysterious monument 4,600 years ago.