Hidden treasures on display

The mystery baffled archaeologists for more than two decades. What happened to 22,000 pieces of gold jewel-encrusted crowns, daggers and baubles from an ancient burial mound ח that had apparently vanished from Afghanistan in the 1980s?

The treasure, and a host of other masterpieces, had been saved by a mysterious group of Afghans who patiently kept them hidden away underground, at great personal risk.

"Over the last 20 to 25 years, during food shortages and money crises, this handful of people ... could have sold these collections instead of going hungry, but they never once sacrificed their own cultural heritage." - Fredrik Hiebert, National Geographic Society archaeologist