Case file · Anomaly hotspot
Father Crespi's 'metal plates', Cuenca
Italian Salesian Carlo Crespi kept in Cuenca a huge collection of objects given by local people, including embossed metal sheets that von Däniken presented in 1972 as relics of a lost culture.
1972 CE · -2.90, -79.00 · status: explained
The sceptical view
Most visitors who saw the collection judged the metal plates to be recent work in thin brass, copper or tin, apparently brought to the priest by local people who knew he would accept them, though no maker was ever identified; genuine pre-Columbian items in the collection went to Ecuador's Central Bank.