The background
A priceless Tibetan statue, carved over 1000 years ago, was looted by the Nazis in 1938 during their search for the origins of the Ayran race. Forgotten until it re-emerged in a private sale in 2007, the statue is now at the center of great interest as scientists discover it was hewn from a meteorite that fell to earth 15, 000 years ago. USA Today issued the disclaimer: “It sounds like Indiana Jones was involved, but not so.”
Lost Nazi loot
A Tibetan expedition organized by Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler and led by zoologist Ernst Schaefer discovered the statue in 1938. The expedition was part of the Nazis’ search for the origins of the Ayran race. The statue would have been of particular interest to the Nazis because of the swastika carved in its centre, a good luck sign that existed in Tibetan culture long before it was negatively appropriated by the Nazis. The statue is nicknamed the ‘Iron Man’, weighs 10kg and depicts the god Vaisravana, the Buddhist King of the North, who is also known in Tibet as Jambhala. It remained hidden from the world until auctioned in 2007. The new owner approached Dr Elmar Buchner of University of Stuttgart to shed light on the history of the unusual carving.
The meteorite
The studies proved that the statue was made of an incredibly rare form of nickel-rich iron present in meteors. The Guardian noted, “Buchner’s team of researchers from Germany and Austria dated it to a specific event in astronomy history when the Chinga meteorite fell in the border region of eastern Siberia and Mongolia between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. Tests proved the icon was made of a rare ataxite class, the rarest meteorite type found on Earth.” It was not uncommon for early cultures to create items from meteoric rock, as meteorites were often heralded as acts of God. Doing so, however, would have been somewhat more difficult that carving statues from earth-bound rock – the meteorite is incredibly hard.
“Absolutely unique…absolutely priceless”
The Iron Man statue is, however, absolutely unique. Dr Buchner told The Telegraph that “The Iron Man statue is the only known illustration of a human figure to be carved into a meteorite, which means we have nothing to compare it to when assessing value.” Indeed, he told The Guardian that: “If we are right that it was made in the Bon culture in the 11th century, it is absolutely priceless and absolutely unique worldwide.” At time of press, Dr Indiana Jones was unavailable for comment.