In Britain, the family decided to sell garden statues, and they turned out to be valuable ancient Egyptian relics thousands of years old.
The sculptures were sold at auction for 265 thousand dollars (more than 19 million rubles). This is 500 times higher than the originally stated lot price. Statues of sphinxes stood in the garden of a residential building in the small town of Sudbury, Suffolk, East Anglia.
At an auction in England, it suddenly turned out that a pair of carved stone statues that the family used as garden ornaments are ancient Egyptian artifacts thousands of years old. The price of the sculptures rose cosmically in an instant, according to the CNN TV channel.
Chairman of the auction house James Mander He told reporters that they were contacted by a family who, when moving, wanted to get rid of items from their old home.
“Much weathered” statues of sphinxes were used to decorate the courtyard in the garden. According to the documents of the auction house, the statues were bought for several hundred pounds at another auction 15 years ago and were considered copies of ancient Egyptian relics of the 18th century.
“The former owners attached the head of one statue with cement, as it fell off,” James Mander shares the details. We didn’t ask the owners many questions and put the sculptures up for auction at a price of 300 to 500 pounds (from 410 to 680 dollars). From the start of the auction, the auction just went crazy!»
The sphinxes turned out to be genuine works of art!. Photo: cnn.com/Screenshot
Within 15 minutes, four telephone bidders and numerous online buyers raised the final price to 195 thousand pounds plus 24% of the buyer’s premium. The final sale was made by the international art gallery.
“The examination determined that the sculptures are authentic ancient Egyptian samples that were somehow perceived as copies of the XVIII century,” the auctioneers said in a statement.
The auction organizers said that the sellers of garden statues had no idea about the true value of the statues. But now their family budget has been replenished with a large fee from the auction.
How did the sphinxes get to England?
Mander said that in the XVIII century, English aristocrats traveled to Europe for educational purposes, and during Grand Tours they bought art goods.
“We assume that these were the objects of the Grand Tour of the XVIII century,” Mander told CNN. “The sculptures are thousands of years old, and they are real. This is really an amazing event,” he said.
The auctioneer added that the previous owners who sold the sphinxes for a couple hundred dollars were surprised “beyond understanding”.
Mander noted that work is underway to trace the origin of the statues.
“I wonder where they’ve been for the last 5,000 years? It’s really incredible,” he said.