After an English family decided to dispose of some of the pieces of their old home, the two carved stone sculptures were sold for £195,000, which is roughly the equivalent of R$1.4 million. Little did they realize that the ornament was actually an Egyptian relic.
The auction house Mandar auctioneer, responsible for the sale, was approached by a family from Sudbury, England, who were moving from town and wanted to sell several items that were in the house where they lived.
Among the items were two three-foot garden sculptures that were by then believed to be replicas of an 18th-century Sphinx and, as the couple told CNN, were bought at another auction about 15 years ago.
Auctioneer James Mander told the British Channel that the auction house did not question the origin of the statues and expected them to sell for up to £500 (BRL 3,750).
However, when auctions began, the prices offered for the statues began to skyrocket when potential buyers realized they could be Egyptian objects from several centuries ago.
The sculptures were sold to an international art gallery for £195,000, but the name of the buyer was not released by the auction house.
Also according to the company, the art gallery owners sent the pieces for inspection, proving that they are, in fact, authentic Egyptian artifacts.
“They’re thousands of years old and they’re real. So it’s really amazing,” auctioneer Mander told CNN.
