In 1958, a team of archaeologists descended on Stonehenge, the mysterious formation of rocks in southern England, to excavate the site and repair one of the toppled structures. In order to reinforce one of the rocks, the team enlisted a diamond-cutting business to drill holes into its core so that metal rods could be inserted to lift it, leaving three stone cores approximately one meter long. Unbeknownst to anyone, Robert Phillips, an employee of the diamond-cutting company, quietly pocketed one of the cores, and would go on to proudly display it in a plastic tube in his office and home.
For decades, English Heritage—the charity that looks over England's historic buildings, monuments, and sites—had wondered about its whereabouts, until they were contacted last year by Philips's sons. On the eve of his 90th birthday, Phillips expressed his desire to return the Stonehenge core, and so his two sons reached out to English Heritage curator, Heather Sebire.
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