the profits from the ambergris were
divided equally among the fishermen
they shared money with people who helped
and gave to those in need in the village
welcome to watch mojo and today we'll be
counting down our picks for the top 10
valuable items people found by accident
auction value in today's market probably
on the conservative side would be in the
range of ten thousand to fifteen
thousand dollars
i love you too for this list we'll be
looking at priceless objects found by
people who weren't looking for them that
means treasure hunters archaeologists
and metal detectorists don't count as
they can't be considered accidental
fines let us know in the comments if
you've ever found something valuable by
chance
number 10 kid icarus retro video games
only get more valuable as the years go
on and many classic titles can be worth
a small fortune today
[Music]
that's what one californian scott amos
found out when he searched through some
of his childhood possessions at the
request of his mother stumbling across a
copy of kid icarus on the nes that he'd
never opened experts say it's one of the
hardest nintendo titles to find in
sealed condition still in its original
packaging and with a receipt for
authenticity the game was auctioned off
and went for a cool nine thousand
dollars to a collector amos had no idea
that he'd forgotten such a valuable find
in his mom's house for 30 years and he
spent the windfall on a disney family
vacation
disney world disney world i want to go
to disney world oh disney world
number nine signed sneaker
mj
michael jordan is one of the most famous
basketball players of all time which is
why it's so shocking that anybody could
think to throw out a signed sneaker he
once wore i get a bunch of vintage
jordans but like michael jordan's
jordans i want the actual shoes off his
feet the sneaker was found in a dumpster
outside capitol court mall in milwaukee
wisconsin as the building was set to be
demolished in 2001 and used to be
displayed in one of the mall's stores it
was found by jordan fan larry awe a
worker at the mall and saved from the
landfill awe decided to put the nike up
for auction in 2019 and it was
authenticated as being an early air
jordan made in 1984. on september 15th
nike created a revolutionary new
basketball shoe
on october 18th the nba threw them out
of the game
fortunately the nba can't stop you from
wearing them it was expected to fetch
twenty thousand dollars at auction
number eight 1.25 pound gold nugget i
love gold
the look of it the taste of it the smell
of it the texture nobody expects to find
a large gold nugget while walking their
dog but that's exactly the stroke of
luck one australian family encountered
in 2019. the family remained anonymous
when interviewed by the press but
couldn't believe their good fortune made
even more serendipitous by the fact that
the family dog is named lucky weighing
in at around 20 ounces the family
planned to put the gold nugget up for
auction estimated to be worth roughly 24
000 u.s dollars at the time it wasn't
the first or last time large pieces of
gold have been found in australia either
with similar finds in 2018 and 2020. big
handful
yup grab that big handful it's huge
[Music]
number seven cognac cognac
just a smidge
it's believed that an ancestor of this
french family was paid for his label in
bottles of cognac rather than money back
in the 19th century and three of those
bottles remained in the family's cellar
for hundreds of years getting totally
forgotten about specifically the vintage
dates back to 1762
making it one of the oldest bottles of
spirits ever sold at auction when it
went up for sale at sotheby's in 2020 of
the three bottles two were sold and one
was given to a museum the largest of all
commanded the highest price tag
naturally going for almost 150 thousand
dollars to a collector
[Music]
we can only imagine what that cognac
must taste like if the collector even
dares to open the bottle it's like fine
cognac with a hint of age scrotum number
six ambergris
sometimes nicknamed gray amber or
floating gold ambergris is well without
mincing words whale vomit ambergris has
been a prized substance throughout
history studies say that it was used in
medicines as incense and even as an
aphrodisiac the reason it's so sought
after despite being obviously difficult
to acquire is that it's invaluable in
the luxury perfume industry hunting down
pieces of ambergris is big business and
while ambergris has all the makings for
a great perfume what really drives up
the price tag is simply how rare it is
scientists don't know exactly why but
only about one percent of sperm whales
produce this substance but one fisherman
in thailand wasn't looking for whale
vomit when he stumbled across a 14-pound
piece of it in 2019 though it's not
legal to sell ambergris in some parts of
the world because historically whales
had to be slaughtered to get it this
isn't true for thailand the fisherman
hopes to get over three hundred thousand
dollars when the chunk was auctioned
number five walrus chess piece
much like harvesting ambergris walrus
ivory is also highly regulated today but
that certainly wasn't the case 900 years
ago when this medieval chess set was
carved they've been carved in the middle
of the 12th century out of walrus tusks
by craftsmen who were really geniuses
the set is called the lewis chessmen and
it was found in scotland in 1831 having
stayed hidden there for hundreds of
years some group of them was buried on
the shore of lewis for reasons we don't
really know and lay there from the
middle of the 12th century till about
1830. but it had a problem the set was
incomplete with five missing pieces that
disappeared somewhere over the centuries
then in 2019 a family came forward
having found one of the missing pieces
in their home having bought it for under
ten dollars in the 1960s that piece
alone was estimated to be worth over one
million dollars seeing these chess
pieces and being electrified by them and
stooping down and saying look at that
and look at that and isn't that
marvelous and that is what they are they
are marvelous number four the
declaration of independence and a nation
is born now let us party like to a 1799.
[Applause]
there actually isn't just one copy of
the united states declaration of
independence there were 201 official
ones made and over the years some of the
missing copies have turned up in strange
places one famous find happened in 1989
in pennsylvania where somebody spent a
whopping four dollars on an old painting
and found an early printing of the
declaration hidden inside valued at
close to one million dollars at the time
i'm gonna steal it
what
i'm gonna steal the declaration of
independence
much more recently a copy was found as
far away as scotland in somebody's attic
this one selling for four and a half
million dollars to an anonymous buyer
you never know maybe someday you'll
stumble across an invaluable copy of the
declaration of independence i kind of
nailed my decoration of independence
replica forged every signature with this
pen number three christ mocked
this painting by chimabue was missing
from its series for more than 700 years
and it depicts jesus christ's treatment
by the romans throughout his sentencing
and crucifixion
for the preservation of
exceptional
for centuries nobody knew where the
painting was until somehow it showed up
in a french woman's kitchen in 2019
shockingly it had been hanging above the
stove for decades and was finally
identified by an auctioneer when the
woman decided to sell her home it was
sold for nearly 20 million euros but the
french authorities then put an export
ban on the piece since december of 2019
france has been fighting to raise the
money to buy the work itself so that it
can be displayed in the louvre for all
to see this is an important piece in the
world artistry because this is a this is
a picture where you see the arch the
artist chimabui changing the lines
pushing the lines much forward number
two dearer drawing a foremost
renaissance figure albrecht juror held
from germany and produced many beautiful
works of art during his lifetime
including many sketches there's a lot of
different
genres and styles
and yet
once you've been alerted to him you
suddenly begin to see affinities between
the works one such sketch from 1503
miraculously appeared at an estate sale
in massachusetts in 2021 regarded by the
seller and the buyer as a likely but
still impressive fake it was bought for
only thirty dollars only to later be
authenticated as a genuine deerer
potentially worth upwards of 50 million
dollars he was an extraordinary artist
the first big name that one should get
excited about it actually took some time
for it to be taken seriously as a
genuine juror too with many experts also
assuming it was a fake not worth their
time he stands
alone really
you really wonder how a human hand can
do that
before we unveil our top pick here are a
few honorable mentions the churchill
collection the belongings of britain's
most famous prime minister were found in
a garbage dump cigar case
signed photo
and the piece of the resistance i have
to say winston's hat fake diamond ring
this 15 fake ring turned out to be a 26
carat diamond jeezum crow look at the
size of that rock
meteorite worth 100 000 this space rock
was used as a door stop for decades
within minutes within seconds i knew
that this was it was a real one it was
found apparently in 1930s picasso's
plate bought for 100 in the 70s it was
made by picasso and actually worth over
10 thousand dollars i have to admit
that it hung over the stove in the
kitchen
and all of our kids love the smiley face
lunar samples
nasa definitely didn't mean to auction
off pieces of the moon for less than a
thousand dollars you're setting up the
flag now
beautiful
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number one venus demilo
any work of art is only worth whatever
somebody is willing to pay for it but
some pieces are so extraordinarily
important that they absolutely have to
be publicly displayed for all to enjoy
instead of being auctioned off to a
private collector 9 million on the
phones do i hear 10 million 10 million
10 million 10 million months twice
sold
through the gentleman from indonesia
congratulations this is true for the
venus to milo one of the world's most
iconic statues which has been kept in
the louvre for the last two centuries
the work of a foremost sculptor in
ancient greece alexandros of antioch the
venus de milo was found completely by
happenstance in 1820 by a farmer who was
digging up stones from the ancient ruins
on his property truly the venus to milo
is priceless
precious venus
[Music]
[Applause]
thank you
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