Page 5 - IAV Digital Magazine #532

Statues FromBritish Garden Identified As Ancient Egyptian, Sell For $265,510
By Ben Hooper
Oct. 13 (UPI) -- A pair of statues from a British gar- den initially were believed to be 18th-century repli- cas of Egyptian artifacts, but fetched $265,510 at an auction after they were sus- pected to be thou- sands of years old.
Mander Auctioneers said a couple moving out of their Sudbury, England, home contacted the auc- tion house to sell off items from the home they were vacating, and among them
were a pair of sphinx
statues that had spent 15 years in the couple's gar-
den.
The couple said the statues were purchased from another auction for a few hundred dollars and
were believed to be 18th century replicas of ancient Egyptian artifacts.
Auctioneer James Mander said the auction house did- n't question the couple's appraisal of the statues' ori- gins and expected them to sell for $410 to $680, but the auction started to skyrocket when prospective buy- ers suggested the statues could be actual Egyptian items dating thou- sands of years.
Mander said the statues sold for a
final price of $265,510 to an international art gallery. He said the gallery own- ers' examination of the statues determined they are indeed authentic Egyptian artifacts.
"As it turns out they're thousands of years old and genuine. So it's quite amazing really,"
Mander told CNN. Work is now being done to try to determine exactly when the items date from.
"I wonder where they've been for the last 5,000 years. It's quite incredible, really," Mander said.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine