Gold has fascinated us since prehistory, even though the metal has remarkably little practical use. Ian Fleming’s book, Goldfinger, centres on the gold-obsessed Auric Goldfinger, and one of the enduring images of the 1964 film version is of Bond’s accomplice, Jill Masterton, lying dead, covered from head to foot in gold paint, the cause of death being attributed to ‘skin suffocation’.
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