A married couple accidentally bought garden statues at a sale. The figures stood in the rain and snow for more than 10 years. The head of one of the sphinxes even had to be repaired. Then the family decided to move and put up a couple of statues in the style of Ancient Egypt for sale, where an expert drew attention to them – the monuments turned out to be artifacts lost 5 thousand years ago.
At one time, the statues were bought for an amount of about 200$. They were treated accordingly: the figurines performed their task of decorating the garden. Time did not spare the monuments – one was covered with cracks, and the head of the second had to be fastened to the neck with cement. They sold the statues through an online auction.
In the very first minutes, a specialist in the culture of Ancient Egypt, James Mandera, drew attention to the lot. He did not tell the owners anything, but there were other experts. The price of the lot has risen sharply to the level of 400.000$. They fought for an ancient artifact for hours, until finally the sphinxes were bought by an international auction gallery, the name of which remained a secret.
“These two sphinxes are from the Giza Valley. They were lost 5000 years ago. I just can’t believe that it occurred to someone to decorate the garden with ancient artifacts,” one of the participants in the auction shared with reporters.
The sale of the statues brought the former owner a lot of money. The situation is akin to an accidental discovery of a treasure.
