Read Online The Curse by Harold Robbins - Free Book Online

free-range chicken.
    His eye started to twitch again as he stared at me. It made me wonder if it wasn’t a lie detector.
    â€œHow would you go about authenticating the scarab?” he asked. “Can it be tested to determine its age?”
    â€œNot as you might imagine. Radiocarbon dating, measuring how old an object is by how radioactive its carbon content is, only works on things that were once living—like wood and paper. It can’t be used to test mineral objects like stone. The heart is probably made of lapis lazuli.”
    It was an easy guess. Lapis lazuli was a rich, sky blue, semiprecious gem. Although not as valuable as precious gems like diamonds and rubies, it was easier for the ancients to cut into desired shapes than harder stones.
    â€œYes. And I have been told that counterfeiters are able to take the same material and duplicate the heart, making it extremely difficult to tell if it’s a reproduction. Stone does not change over time, especially if it has been sealed in a tomb for thousands of years. Isn’t that true?”
    â€œHard stone like lapis lazuli, marble, and limestone wouldn’t materially change under those conditions. But other clues can determine if it’s ancient. Lapis lazuli is a rock, formed from different minerals. Even though pieces of it from mines in different parts of the world may look similar, no two deposits of it have exactly the same chemical makeup.”
    â€œAh, yes, like DNA and fingerprints. It has to be examined by a chemist?”
    â€œYes. Records, testing, and geological surveys have identified many of the pits and mines that were used by the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians for the marble, clays, and other materials to make objects. Chemical analysis can reveal what site the piece came from and whether that source was one customarily used to make the type of piece we’re examining.”
    He shook his head. “There would be no time to subject it to scientific analysis. Obviously, the thieves are not going to permit anything more than a quick examination done in a secret place and under the most stringent circumstances.”
    â€œThen you would have to gamble on its appearance alone. But there are clues that help. A stone object made for a pharaoh will be of the finest material available to the ancients.
    â€œThe lapis lazuli that your god-kings preferred came from Afghanistan, where it’s been mined for thousands of years. It’s intensely sky blue and has just a slight dusting of tiny pyrite particles, what we call fool’s gold. I can tell by looking at the piece whether it’s of the quality used by royalty.”
    â€œBut a good forger would know to use the best Afghan lapis lazuli?”
    â€œTrue, but there’s more to consider. Like the type of tools they used. Modern tools, even hand tools, make subtly different impressions than the stone, copper, and bronze tools that were used during the time of the pharaohs.
    â€œThe patina, the outer coating that appears over time on an object, also has to be examined because it can reveal the age of an object and where it’s been kept. Obviously, items kept sealed in a tomb have a different patina than those buried in the ground or exposed over the eons to the elements.”
    â€œI’ve been told that forgers can duplicate the patina to appear aged.”
    â€œThey can try. Microscopic examination can usually show whether the tarnish has developed over thousands of years or was just put on recently. Now you’re going to tell me that there won’t be an opportunity to examine the piece under a microscope, right?”
    â€œUnfortunately, that is the case.”
    â€œWhich brings the situation down to the most basic test of the authenticity of a piece of art: gut reaction—what it looks like … feels like.”
    I realized he was already aware of everything I had told him. Any expert he spoke to could have pretty much told