Most VALUABLE Treasures Discovered By ACCIDENT!

hi everyone its Katrina from a pizza parlor decoration worth seven figures to a centuries-old pot that was used to square away some unpaid cab fare things aren't always as they seem here are eight amazing things found by accident number eight the Janus cup as a young boy John Weber of Dorchester England was given a small cup with two faces on it by his grandfather who was a scrap metal dealer he didn't think to investigate the items worth after all while scrap metal retained some value it usually won't land someone a fortune and Weber simply assumed the cup was made out of a material his grandfather typically worked with such as bronze or brass Weber stored the item underneath his bed and forgot about it until he was in his 70s as he prepared to move no kunwari method for him at that time he realized that his initial analysis of the cups material had been mistaken and that it wasn't just some chintzy old dining where he sought the advice of the British Museum but even the experts had never seen anything like it the five and a half inch tall vessel featured Janus the double headed ancient Roman god of beginnings and doorways they recommended for Weber to have the mettle tested at a laboratory he took their advice and when the result came in he was probably glad he did the cup was determined to be from the ancient Persian Empire dating back to sometime between the 3rd and 4th centuries BC and it was made of pure gold having the item tested wasn't cheap according to Weber but after it fetched $100,000 at an auction in 2008 I'm sure he would agree it was worth the cost number 7 Roman era pizzeria decor in 2007 a wooden stand sitting outside the bathrooms of the North York Shire England branch of the ASX pizzeria chain caught the eye of a customer who decided to photograph and investigate the item the gilt wood carving featured Garland's and naked youths and while it had gone unnoticed by many something about it piqued this person's curiosity the customer sent the picture to Sotheby's furniture expert Marc Tavella who recognized the item right away in fact Tavella looking for the missing cabinet base for nearly two decades see it was destiny sometime after World War two a 17th century baroque cabinet had somehow become separated from its base as the years passed those searching for the missing base began to lose hope that it would ever be recovered nobody knows how or why the base in the cabinet ended up in separate places or how the bottom piece fell into the hands of the pizzeria owners fully assembled the cabinet depicts a crowd in Rome being blessed by the Pope it's nearly identical to two other pieces of furniture located in Denmark which are believed to have been given as gifts by Pope Clement the ninth a European private collector purchased the piece of furniture at Sotheby's for around 1 million four hundred and fifteen thousand dollars in late 2007 number six the Devon moonstone in 1950 a family purchased a home in Sussex England from a Sri Lankan tea farmer the property contained a semicircular 4x8 foot granite stone weighing nearly a ton on its surface the stone depicted animals such as cows horses lions elephants and birds along with flowers and foliage from there on out whenever the family moved they brought the stone with them the family was unaware of the stones value but found it to be a nice yard decoration it eventually fell into the possession of Bronwyn Hikmat the daughter of its original owners who was four years old when her family moved onto the property where they discovered the artifact by the time she invited Vaughn Holmes auctioneer Sam took to take a look at the moss covered stone mrs. Hickman was grown and married she and her husband Mike had previously attempted to consult with antiques experts and auction houses but were repeatedly turned away the stone was identified as a sri lankan moonstone known as sand ekkada pahoa and bears a striking resemblance to moon stones from Buddhist temples that were built during Sri Lanka's anuradhapura era which lasted from 400 BC to 1000 AD archaeologists from Sri Lanka were unable to find records of the stone being removed from the area despite records of this type having been kept since 1890 and were therefore reluctant to classify the artefact as authentic although this possibility was not ruled out if the stone is in fact real it's one of just seven known artifact of its type from the period while Cinna rough Tucson yaki the head of Sri Lanka's archeology Department believes the artifact should be returned to the country if it's deemed authentic he admitted that it may not be possible to get the stone bag to de Legislative constraints moreover in a 2013 BBC interview he explains that until the items authenticity is verified there's essentially no point in considering the potential legal obstacles associated with getting it back although experts admit that it's highly unusual to find this type of relic outside of Sri Lanka Phan hands believes the stone was genuine and assists its value and upwards of forty seven thousand five hundred dollars when it went up for auction an unexpected bidding war occurred between the three in-person bidders and eight people who made their offers over the phone after having their belief that the stone was valuable poo-pooed by experts time and time again as the hick watts put it they got the last laugh it sold for an astounding eight hundred thousand dollars nearly 17 times what it was originally valued at number five the Sleeping Lady one day in 2009 Hungarian art historian gur julie bartkey put the children's movie stuart little on for his border Lola in the background of the movie set he noticed a painting that he recognized as a Hungarian avant-garde masterpiece that had been missing since 1928 although he had only seen a faded black-and-white photograph of the lost painting barky identified it almost immediately as Robert Barney's sleeping lady with black vase he later reported that he was so shocked by the sight he almost dropped Lola out of his lap bark he set out on a mission to locate the painting and emailed staff at Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures finally two years later a set designer who had worked on the film replied saying that she had spotted the artwork and antique shop in Pasadena and thought as avant-garde elegance was perfect for the film set the collector she purchased the painting from had bought it at a charity auction in San Diego in the 1990s for just $40 she paid $500 for it and eventually sold the piece to a private collector the collector who purchased the painting from the Stewart little set designer brought it back to Budapest where it was put up for auction in December 2013 at the Budapest Congress center and it was purchased for two hundred and fifty five thousand seven hundred dollars according to barky the painting may have been taken out of Hungary before or during World War two by it's been owner who was possibly Jewish number four the Petri Pot sometime during the 1950's a man who owed fair money to the English taxi driver Charles phunnel paid him instead with a strange little pot attached to the pot was a card identifying the red and black artifact as a Libyan pottery dating back to 3000 BC that had been discovered sometime between 1894 and 95 by professor WM Flinders Petrie the curious object was then forgotten about until 2014 when the taxi drivers grandson guy funnel was clearing out the family's garage by then the pot had been broken several times and repaired with superglue in addition to the information available on the items description card photo had recently washed a BBC documentary about Petrie who was responsible for some of the finest discoveries of ancient Egyptian artifacts and is remembered for the exceptionally thorough records he kept of these items funnel contacted the Petrie Museum in London after recognizing the name of the archaeologists on the pots label it turns out that the archaeologists had made a mistake regarding the pots origin it was not Libyan but Egyptian pay tree had caught his error which was one of the very few he ever made and had publicly set the record straight the commercially printed card accompanying the artifact was the only one ever found it's believed that the indebted taxi passenger who gifted the pot to Petrie may have been a museum curator from Oxford named Joseph Milne number three Roman moratorium turned bird bath in 2006 a resident of a Leicester England named ray Taylor found a flat clay bowl in his garden while digging for rhubarb and decided to use it as a bird bath for the next decade or so that's where it remained when Taylor's daughter Rebecca visited the Roman Alistair Heritage Museum she noticed several similar items on display and suggested for her dad to take his makeshift birdbath there to learn more he took her advice and the item was identified by Sarah we're a curator for the workshare museum service as a Roman moratorium from the 2nd or 3rd century AD it was used similarly to a modern mortar and pestle to make sauces by grinding various herbs spices and other ingredients most pottery like this had been broken from everyday use during Roman times and was subsequently thrown away after being unearthed at archaeological sites finding such a complete piece was unusual Taylor could have probably fetched a pretty penny for the 2000 year old piece instead however the 83 year old pensioner generously donated it to the Warwickshire museum collections in October 2016 it is now on display at the Roman Alliser Heritage Museum the very place where his daughter first gained an inkling of the items historic value number two the leycester stone when archeologists and television host James Baum noticed a dirty old garden ornament for sale in lacer England he had an unexplainable yet sneaking suspicion that the item was not just a worthless lawn trinket he purchased the heavy sandstone block and noticed after cleaning it that it contained complex engravings that may represent a form of writing to this day nobody knows for sure what it was used for or what it says or represents in 2015 Baum stated in an email to LiveScience that the object may be a key stone from an archway or a vaulted ceiling the 18 inch high 5 and a half inch thick stone weighs between 55 and 65 pounds and possesses a wide base but narrows toward the top while it has various chisel marks on its sides and back the stone is only decorated on the front although Baum speculates that the carving may date back to the anglo-saxon period which started after the Roman Empire fled Britain in 410 and continued until 1066 when William the Conqueror led the Norman invasion of England the artifacts exact date of origin remains unknown several different groups migrated to England during this period and created complex stone carvings some of which are still standing number one the blunt Heim sarcophagus in 2016 an antiques expert noticed a unique flowerpot as he strolled through the gardens of Glen Heim Palace the Oxfordshire England birthplace and ancestral home of Sir Winston Churchill for over 100 years the six foot six inch long ornate marble vessel had been used as a tulip bed and for a century before that after being acquired during the 19th century by the fifth Duke of Marlborough it was used as a makeshift water feature Palace records do not indicate how the Duke had come to own it the antiques expert suspected that the item had historic value and urged palace officials to investigate they summon the help of conservators who remove the original part of the repurpose flowerpot and it's to be a one thousand eight hundred year old sarcophagus from the Dionysian period the intricate carvings depict the ancient Roman god of wine Dionysus and a rather inebriated state and leaning against an equally drunk woodland God known as a satyr also featured on the artwork are two large lion heads and other presumably intoxicated party attendees including Hercules in Ariadne Nicholas Banfield who oversaw the restoration of the sarcophagus at Cliveden conservation noted that the sarcophagus was in remarkable condition considering it has withstood seemingly aggressive environments despite enduring the wear and tear of both time and the elements it was valued at around three hundred and ninety one thousand dollars in 2017 the sarcophagus was placed in an underground public display at Blinn Heim palace thanks for watching and keep an eye out for hidden treasures you never know what might be lost out there be sure to subscribe and I'll see you next time bye

Channel: Origins Explained

Views: 416,209

Rating: 4.6298823 out of 5

Keywords: origins explained, valuable treasures, amazing treasures, found by accident, discovered by accident, accidental discoveries, buried treasures, hidden treasures, treasures discovered, metal detecting, mysterious treasures, valuable discoveries, amazing discoveries, mysterious discoveries, strange discoveries, valuable, treasures, hidden, discoveries, amazing, mysterious, found, strange, origins explained top 10

Id: CpHz4QwC6OU

Length: 11min 54sec (714 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 20 2019