Chapter 17: The Face of Scandal

Just minutes after Eveline’s very stressful encounter with Jenny in the locker-room, Lance passed by to pick her up and take her to Coach Strickland’s place. Eveline’s stressful day got even more stressful when he showed her the following article about the auction from Mega-News:

Section E - Arts & Culture

TSU Out-Foxed!

- The Niger Heart-Pot sold to African leader at auction - Tri-State Admin claims antiquity was not on auction list - Sale for a fraction of real value, but completely legal

Today Comandante Foxtrot, Supreme President of the West African Confederation, issued a press release announcing he had purchased the priceless Niger Heart-Pot from Tri-State University for $ 9.2 million dollars at auction.

“This is a great day for both the Confederation and for Tri-State University,” according to the Supreme President. “An important part of our heritage is returning home, to where it belongs, and the university is receiving a generous endowment of 9.2 million dollars. It’s a win-win for everyone, and I am so proud to have made it happen. It shows what a man-of-action like myself can do for the people he serves.”

Comandante Foxtrot added that representatives from his nation’s Ministry of Culture had already prepared the Niger Heart-Pot for shipment, and that it was en route on a special flight to the Confederation’s National Museum, where it will be placed on permanent display.

Archeologists around America expressed dismay that the priceless antiquity was sold at auction.

“It was supposed to go into the Smithsonian,” according to Dr. Freddy Gauss, a noted expert in the archeology of the Niger River Valley. “Who let that crazy dictator walk off with it?”

The Niger Heart-Pot dates back more than 3,500 years and has been mentioned in many historical texts. Its origin is a mystery, but it was a prized possession of Egyptian and later Babylonian kings over hundreds of years. The legend surrounding the Heart-Pot is that, with the appropriate sacrifices, it has the magical ability to grant unlimited charisma to the ruler who owns it. The Heart-Pot became known as the Niger Heart-Pot in 1153 AD when it mysteriously showed up in the local king’s palace. The Niger Heart-Pot was hidden in a tomb in 1883, to prevent French soldiers from capturing it. It was unearthed in 1936 by archeologists from Tri-State University and smuggled out of French West Africa. The Niger Heart-Pot has been kept at Tri-State University since early 1937.

Prior to yesterday’s sale, Tri-State University had been under pressure to send the Niger Heart-Pot to the Smithsonian for safe-keeping. As Dr. Gauss noted: “a university museum is no place to keep something like that. It’s a wonder it wasn’t stolen years ago.”

Next page - Scandal! TSU museum curator and Art Department Chairman missing

And, accompanying the text was the soon-to-be infamous trophy-shot with the caption:

Comandante Foxtrot posing with his prize and the lovely auction hostess Eveline Rogers

Great. It wasn’t enough that she was known as the naked girl around the school, or around the city, or even the Tri-State region. No ... now she had to be naked in front of the entire world.

Oh, boy ... A quick check of the headlines made it clear the Niger Heart-Pot sale had become the art scandal of the decade. Across the US, arts and antiquities fans were closely following the story of how Tri-State University lost possession of one of the world’s most valuable artifacts.

No one could blame either Nancy or Eveline for what had happened. Their job was to auction whatever was on the list and try to get the highest bid for the seller. It was not their place to question the legality or morality of any particular sale. Still, Eveline would become the face of the scandal. Her picture showed up in every single story covering the sale of the Niger Heart-Pot. Many of the pictures were censored or cropped from her shoulders up, but in a lot of publications they weren’t. So, that was how the US and the international art community got introduced to the auction presenter Eveline Rogers.