Arena: Relics

The introductory programme to "Arena Relics" attempts to establish what a relic is.

In 1955 Albert Einstein died. The 76-year-old man had had it recorded that his body would be cremated. His final wish was only partly met, because doctors in a Princeton hospital secretly removed the genius' brain. They assumed that it might advance the research into the subject of exalted intellectual power. A short time later, the brain disappeared. English filmmaker Kevin Hull crossed America in search of the truth about the stolen brains, together with the Japanese scientist Kenji Sugimoto, who has been studying Einstein for over thirty years. One of the people they meet on their travels is Einstein's daughter Evelyn. The documentary culminates in the meeting with Dr. Thomas Harvey, who was a famous neurosurgeon in the fifties, but today leads a life as a factory worker. Harvey claims to have the brain in his possession.

A professional grave-robber from Peru finds the infamous Punchao, a relic at the centre of the Inca religion. It is the golden disc of the sun God Atahualpha, lost for 500 years. He plans to carry it from the jungles to Lima to sell it.

In 1978 Charlie Chaplin's coffin was stolen from his grave in Switzerland. A large ransom demand was made of his widow Oona. This is a fictional account of what happened to the coffin the basic premise being unrequited love...