10.
Austrian Treasure An Austrian man found around 200 pieces of
jewelry in his backyard in Wiener Neustadt, south of Vienna.
He was digging to enlarge a pond in his garden when he came across hundreds of these pieces
that were caked with mud.
He put them in a box in his basement and forgot about them for a few years.
When he came across them again while packing up his belongings after selling his house,
some of the mud had dried up and fallen off, revealing precious metals and gems.
He cleaned them up better with regular household cleaners and posted pictures of the jewels
on the Internet.
Experts informed him they could be quite old and worth a lot of money.
An amateur archaeologist asked him to report the find to the Austrian Federal Monument
Agency (BDA), so he packed them up and took them there.
Austria’s department in charge of national antiquities said the find comprises over 200
rings, brooches, ornate belt buckles, gold-plated silver plates, and other pieces, many covered
with pearls, fossilized coral, and other decorations.
Experts at the agency say the objects are around 650 years old and are being assessed
for their background and value.
While they have not yet placed a monetary value on the buried treasure, the exciting
language from the usually stoic Federal Office for Memorials revealed the importance that
is connected to the discovery.
“Fairy tales still exist!”
they said in their statement.
“Private individual finds a sensational treasure in his garden.”
It described the ornaments as “one of the qualitatively most significant discoveries
of medieval treasure in Austria.”
The monetary value will only be gauged after all the research on where they originated
and what materials they are made of have been done.
Although many experts agree, their value could very well be at least six figures.
The man who found them, who wishes to remain anonymous, has no intention of selling the
treasure.
He wishes to make this lovely and historical prize available to the public.
Many of the jewels will be accessible to the public in Vienna’s Hofburg Palace complex,
the official dwelling of the President of Austria, the seat of government, and a museum
displaying imperial Hapsburg history.
9.
FERRARI DINO 264 GTS Thumbnail item According to one famous urban legend, a group
of kids were digging in the mud outside of a Los Angeles home in 1978 when they struck
what looked and felt like the roof of an old car.
They flagged down a sheriff’s deputy and a crew soon arrived at the scene, where they
dug up a metallic green Dino 264 GTS Ferrari.
The discovery made the front page of the Los Angeles Times, which reported that the car
was in amazingly good condition.
Other than a hole over the right taillight, there appeared to be no visible damage.
Photos from the scene have circulated for decades as the case continues to fascinate
people.
The car’s owner, Rosendo Cruz, had reported it stolen four years earlier in 1974.
But the case went cold from there as law enforcement struggled to figure out how and why it ended
up buried in someone’s yard.
In 2012, Jalopnik writer Mike Spinelli contacted Dennis Carroll, one of the original detectives
that worked the case.
Carroll told Spinelli that an informant had tipped off investigators about the buried
car.
Detectives concocted the story about a group of unsuspecting children discovering the vehicle
as a way of concealing the informant’s identity.
The car wasn’t stolen after all.
The tipster told law enforcement that Cruz had hired some co-conspirators to stage the
crime so he could collect on the insurance.
But police could not prove these claims and Cruz was never charged with any crimes.
The Ferrari was given to the insurance company that handled the original theft claim, and
it was soon discovered that the car was in worse shape than it had seemed at first.
In fact, its condition was disastrous.
The body was rusted out, and the damage had spread to the leather seats because whoever
buried the car forgot to roll up the windows first.
A young mechanic bought the Ferrari at an auction and restored it to perfect condition.
Nobody knows what happened to it after that, but many believe that it’s still out there
somewhere, perhaps in the possession of a classic car enthusiast.
8.
RECORD-BREAKING COIN HOARD An amateur with a metal detector was treasure
hunting outside his Norfolk, England home during the 1990s when he found an old coin.
It was the first of many he would dig up over the next 30 years, ultimately amassing a collection
of 131 pieces.
Rivaling the size of the famed Sutton Hoo hoard, which has more gold but fewer coins,
it’s the largest Anglo-Saxon coin hoard ever found.
Most of the coins are Frankish tremisses dating between 580 and 630 A.D.
The collection also consists of nine larger Roman coins called solidi, as well as some
gold jewelry and pendants.
The items have already taught experts some things they didn’t previously know about
early 7th-century trade in the region, including that coins from outside the area were initially
used before currency started being minted locally.
An expert is examining the artifacts to determine if they qualify as treasure under the Treasure
Act.
This designation would automatically hand ownership of the hoard over to the Crown,
to ensure that the items were kept off the black market and made available for the public
to enjoy.
Anything that’s over 300 years old and made from over 10 percent precious metals usually
falls into this category.
7.
A LOST SCULPTURE In 2002, a weathered statue of a reclining
woman sold for $7,540 at an auction in Sussex, England.
Its new owners, a British couple who had bought the piece to decorate their yard with, soon
began hearing rumors they might have received Recumbent Magdalene, a long-missing masterpiece
by Italian sculptor Antonio Canova.
The statue depicts Mary Magdelene in a state of grief.
They hired an art advisor, and it was soon determined that the piece was, in fact, the
original.
Commissioned by then-British Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, the sculpture was started
in 1819 and was finished in 1822, shortly before Canova’s death.
Over time, it fell into obscurity as it was passed through the hands of many owners, and
it was lost until recently when it was identified as the Recumbent Magdalene.
The sculpture was restored to its original appearance and is slated to be auctioned off
later this year for anywhere from $6,500,000 to $10,500,000.
6.
FERRARI 166 BARCHETTA The Ferrari 166 Barchetta is widely considered
the car that made the company.
Only 25 of the 1950 two-liter, V12 models were ever made.
Ferrari had only been in business for three years.
In 2007, a man named Manny Del Arroz bought one of these extremely rare cars after it
was found in the backyard of a home in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Speaking with SF Gate, Monterey-based automotive historian Michael T. Lynch retold the tale
of how the car ended up where it was found.
During the 1950s, a man living in Europe found the abandoned 166M at a used car showroom
in Lausanne, Switzerland.
He called his friend Reg Lee Litton, a car enthusiast who lived in Scottsdale, and Litton
told the man to buy the car for him.
After paying somewhere between $5,000 and $8,000 for the vehicle, Litton’s friend
had it shipped to California.
Litton picked the Ferrari up in Long Beach and drove it back to Scottsdale, where he
raced against his friends who owned Maseratis and other sports cars.
He drove it until something broke, and then he parked it in his backyard and covered it
with some rugs and plastic.
At some point, someone took the rugs for some other purpose, leaving the Ferrari exposed
to the elements.
It sat in Litton’s yard until he died.
His children sold the weathered car to Del Arroz through a series of intermediaries for
over $1,000,000.
The buyer did some research and found out that the vehicle had run in historic races
like Le Mans, Silverstone, and Targa Florio.
A closer look during a mechanical rebuild revealed the date 6/9/49 etched into the motor,
which meant that it had been driven by former racing champion Juan Manuel Fangio.
If you found a car like this, what would you do with it?
Let me know in the comments and make sure to subscribe to the channel if you haven’t
yet.
5.
RARE GOLD RUSH ERA COINS What started out as an ordinary day for a
northern California couple in 2014 ended with the discovery of a fortune.
They were taking their dog out for their regular walk when the wife spotted a rusty old can
sticking out of the ground near an old tree.
The pair dug up $10,000,000 worth of rare gold coins in mint condition, many of which
date back to the Gold Rush era.
Altogether, the collection comprises 1,427 mostly uncirculated, pristine coins in denominations
of $5.00, $10.00, and $20.00.
They’re dated between 1847 and 1894, and while their face value only amounted to around
$27,000, some of them were so rare that experts placed their price tag as high as $1,000,000.
Gold is one of the few commodities that keep its value.
To prevent a modern-day “Gold Rush” from coming to their yard, and to avoid having
to deal with fair-weather friends hoping to cash in on their newfound fortune, the couple
who found the coins remained anonymous and kept their name out of the press.
They held onto a few pieces as keepsakes, but sold most of the coins and used the proceeds
to pay their bills and quietly donate to charity.
4.
THE SERENDIPITY SAPPHIRE Workers were digging a well in the backyard
of a home in Sri Lanka when they discovered the world’s largest sapphire cluster.
Weighing roughly 2.5 million carats, the massive pale blue gem had an estimated value of around
$100,000,000.
Ironically, the property owner is a third-generation gem trader.
Known only as Mr. Gamage, he told the BBC that one worker he had hired to dig his well
alerted him to the discovery of some rare stones.
Shortly thereafter, they found the gargantuan sapphire cluster.
It took a year for experts to clear the cluster of impurities before they were able to thoroughly
analyze it and certify it as authentic.
Not all the stones are likely to receive as high of grading as the handful that fell out
from the cluster during the analysis, but its sheer size makes it incredibly rare.
Thilak Weerasinghe, the chairman of Sri Lanka’s National Gem and Jewelry Authority, said that
he believes the cluster will attract the attention of museums and private collectors who will
probably be willing to pay a pretty penny for it.
Experts think the cluster formed around 400 million years ago.
Even in the city of Ratnapura, which is famous for its valuable gem discoveries, it’s incredibly
unique.
That it was discovered in a backyard, by chance, makes it even more fascinating and unusual.
3.
RARE DRAWING In 2016, a shopper bought a sketch featuring
a mother and child for $30.00 at the estate sale of an architect in Massachusetts.
The previous owner’s father had been an art dealer and had given the drawing to his
son before it ultimately landed in the buyer’s hands.
It featured the trademark signature of German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, but neither
the buyer nor the seller believed it was an authentic piece.
The anonymous buyer told Artnet News that he purchased it because he liked it.
Word of the drawing spread to Boston-based art collector Clifford Schorer, who learned
of the artwork from a bookseller when he stopped to buy a book on his way to a party.
The bookseller asked Schorer to look at the piece.
He did, but he didn’t hold his breath, since the last noteworthy Dürer drawing had been
found over a century ago.
Much to Schorer’s surprise, it appeared to be the real deal.
Speaking with CNN, he said that he told the owner the drawing was a masterpiece or the
greatest forgery he’d ever seen.
Schorer spent the next three years verifying the artwork’s authenticity, taking 17 international
flights to various places throughout the world.
Earlier this year, experts announced the drawing’s estimated value at upwards of $10,000,000,
and they’ve identified its title as “The Virgin and Child.”
2.
GOLD COAST HOARD Workers were clearing land in a backyard along
Australia’s Gold Coast in 2019 when they discovered wads of cash inside plastic containers
wrapped in duct tape and newspaper.
Police determined the bills had all been phased out of circulation back in 1996.
Altogether, the banknotes totaled $476,630.
Naturally, the money’s discovery led to a legal battle over who it belonged to.
The construction company that owned the property, the contractor whose employees found it, or
the former property owner Peter Chan.
Mr. Chan claimed that his brother-in-law, traveling chef Stephen Ma, had shown him bundles
of cash back in 1993 when he was staying at the home.
He said that Ma had asked him to hold on to the money, which he wanted to keep out of
the bank to avoid taxation, and that Chan had said no.
Ma’s son, Raymond, said that Stephen Ma had become strangely paranoid around that
time and that he had kept Chinese newspapers similar to the ones that some of the money
was wrapped in when it was found.
According to Raymond, Stephen grew increasingly worried about being followed, suggesting that
he may have had something to hide, like a large amount of money.
The current landowner, Morrison Construction Services, alleged that Ma either lacked the
ability to make that amount of money or that he abandoned it on the property, surrendering
any right to it by him or anyone associated with him.
Meanwhile, the two tradesmen who discovered the cash claimed that the owner had hired
them to remove it from the property, giving them legal rights to ownership of it.
The judge ultimately ruled that Morrison Construction had the most rightful claim to the fortune
because it was found on land that the company currently owns.
But the fight continued, and the parties involved eventually settled the dispute under confidential
terms, leaving anyone who’s followed the case to wonder who received what in terms
of their share of the cash.
1.
RARE CHINESE BOWL A keen-eyed customer was at a yard sale outside
a New Haven, Connecticut home in 2020 when a small porcelain bowl with a floral design
caught his eye.
He paid $35.00 for it and didn’t haggle over the price.
Something about the item compelled its new owner to suspect that it might be worth a
lot more.
The buyer consulted experts from Sotheby’s auction house, who identified the object as
a rare 15th-century Chinese bowl dating back to the Yongle Emperor and the third Ming Dynasty
ruler who ruled from 1403 to 1424.
It was made for the Yongle Court, which introduced a new artistic style to China.
Only six other companion bowls existed, putting the artifact’s estimated value at somewhere
between $300,000 and $500,000.
Angela McAteer, a Chinese art expert with Sotheby’s, said that her team immediately
recognized the quality of what she called an “undisputed gem.”
She further pointed out that the piece is “a reminder that precious works of art remain
hidden in plain sight just waiting to be found.”
Much to the surprise of everyone involved, including the bowl’s owner and its appraisers,
it sold for $721,800 at auction to an anonymous buyer.
It went for over $200,000 more than the experts predicted it would go for, and around 29,000
times what its previous owner paid for it.
The ultimate price was determined after an intense bidding war between four prospective
buyers.
Thanks for watching!
If you found an ancient treasure in your backyard, would you sell it or donate it to a museum?
Let us know what you would do in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe!
See you next time, bye! :)