The masks - mysterious looking faces fashioned from wood, leather, horse hair and feathers, and painted in a vivid array of colours - are spiritual artefacts thought to have been taken from a reservation in northern Arizona in the 1930s and 40s.

BBC: Hopi tribe masks fetch record prices at Paris auction

Hundreds of people visited the fair selling an array of items, including jams, oil-paintings, religious sayings carved in wood and wedding cakes bedecked in decorations.

BBC: Afghan women who turn to immolation

The city boasts an impressive array of ancient monuments and priceless artefacts, including its striking earthen mosques -- made from mud and wood -- and a vast trove of scholarly manuscripts held in public and private collections.

CNN: New fears for Timbuktu in Mali conflict