(英会話リスニングスクリプト)
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?
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