Jacob Balthazar was an artist, specializing in primitive ethnic wood carvings.
History[]
Jacob Balthazar lived in an apartment at 21 London Road with his four pets: one parrot and three white mice.
Balthazar was hired by Rodrigo Tortilla to make an imitation copy of the Idol of the Broken Ear. He was murdered by Tortilla to keep him quiet. Tortilla then turned on a gas pipe on to make it look accidental. His parrot survived, however, and gave Tintin the clue he needed to realize that Balthazar's death was no accident.
His brother, Simon Balthazar, later aided Tintin in finding the idol. It turns out that Balthazar not only made one copy, but two, and for some reason, that was never explained, Tortilla got a copy, while the real idol ended among Balthazar's belongings, which Simon inherited.