So a man running a junk removal service was about to dump his haul, when he decided to hold onto a unique necklace in the lot. When he took it to an appraiser he was told the piece was a tribal necklace made of bone and horns from the Cook Islands. The original estimate was a mere $100, but predicting public interest is never easy and the hammer went down at a whopping $125,000! Lesson learned? Have all your trash analyzed before disposing.
This is what armchair auction watching is all about. Certain items are so steeped in history or personally connected to the world, that it seems hard to imagine they can be owned by a single individual. And many would say they shouldn’t be. But I think it’s kind of neat that a person, in this case, could own the skeleton of a Dodo bird! I bird with such a storied extinction I almost think they’re a myth. But here they are. The bones of a bird so magical it made it into Alice’s Wonderland. Winning bid, $470,000.
Patek Philippe watches go for a small mint just on their own. The time pieced are considered to be the finest in the world. But what of a Patek once owned by Pope Pius IX, who was supreme pontiff from his election in 1846 until his death in 1878? This Patek Philippe was given to Pius IX in 1877 by the Swiss branch of the Catholic organization Piusverein, formed in 1848 to defend Catholic interests across Europe. Christie’s Auction House teases bidders with the idea that should Pope Pius be canonized, one could brag they own a Patek once worn by a saint. Bid estimate $50,000 – $100,000. Auction set for Dec 6th.
