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Experts Question Value Of Hawaiian Statue Salesforce CEO Bought For Millions

February 28, 2019 / 6:10 PM PST / CBS San Francisco

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- After a pricey bidding war, it appears Bay Area tech billionaire Marc Benioff may have paid millions of dollars for a statue that some experts now think is a fake.

The ki'i (image) donated to Bishop Museum by Marc and Lynne Benioff, above, will be unveiled and presented to the public for the first time during the exhibit "Kini ke Kua: Transformative Images." (Credit: Jesse W. Stephen, © Bishop Museum; Bishop Museum Archives)

The Salesforce CEO paid $7.5 million for a carved statue of a Hawaiian war god at an auction. Some experts are claiming it is worth closer to $5,000 because they suspect the statue is not nearly as old as originally thought.

Now curators are doing more research and may even do some DNA testing to try and verify the statue's age.

Last year, Benioff and his wife Lynne donated the piece to the Bishop Museum in Honolulu.

Marc Benioff