Well, 2020 was quite the year, so it makes sense that many interesting, or should we say unique or odd, items were auctioned off within the past 12 months. This includes several record-setting auctions from notable categories such as literature and jewelry.
We decided to take a look back on what 2020 auctions produced that may make you scratch your head. Here’s what we found.
The world is fascinated by anything space related, a claim held true by this auction that saw a collection of 2,400 rare space photos fetch more than $2.1 million. The photos were from several notable missions, including the Apollo moon missions. Subjects of the photos included astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who were responsible for the most expensive photo, a shot taken by Aldrin of Armstrong on the moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission. It sold for more than $70,000.
Rare paintings can often command seven figure-winning bids at auctions. What about 77 times that? A Beijing auction hauled in a record $77 million (512.9 million yuan) for a handscroll painting from the Ming dynasty in 1610. Last October, the painting, titled “Ten Views of Lingbi Rock,” broke the world record sale price for ancient Chinese calligraphies and paintings.
What’s more weird than a piece of hair? How about said hair wrapped in a telegram smeared with blood? That unique combination sold for more than $81,000 this past fall. As for the person, well, it was President Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated in 1865. At the time, Americans found out about Lincoln’s death through a U.S. War Department telegram. The following day, a two-inch piece of Lincoln’s hair was clipped when examining his body and given to his wife’s cousin. That man, Dr. Lyman Beecher Todd, didn’t have anything to put the hair in, so he took a bloodied telegram from his pocket and wrapped the hair in it.
There’s a good chance you or someone in your family is a Beatles fan, so this next one should resonate. Paul McCartney, lead singer of the Beatles, hand wrote lyrics to the 1968 hit song “Hey Jude” that sold for $910,000 this past April. The scribbled down lyrics sold for nine times the estimated amount.
A childhood toy collection ended up in a massive pay day for one United Kingdom resident. It took three auctions, but a lot of 3,000 Matchbox cars netted nearly $400,0000, including one toy car that sold for close to $10,000. Many of the cars were unopened or in their original packaging, which helped increase their value.
You know what they say about trash, right? One person’s trash is another person’s treasure. In this case, a Disney trash can from the massive amusement park turned out to be a $10,000 treasure for one buyer at this auction. The Disney auction featured several other notable items, including a Disneyland Railroad Wait Time Sign for $22,000 and a Disneyland ticket autographed by Walt Disney himself for $11,000.
Typically, you associate high-end diamonds with their transparency and lack of color, a sign of how pure they are. Many diamonds have color, though, including this rare, purple-pink diamond that sold for $26.6 million in Switzerland in 2020. The 14.83-carat stone was found three years ago in a Russian mine and is the most expensive purple-pink diamond to sell at an auction. You judge diamonds by their clarity, and this diamond received an “internally flawless” classification since it contains little to no nitrogen.
Saber-toothed tigers are one of the most popular prehistoric mammals to ever roam the world, which explains why a nearly 40-million-year-old skeleton of one of these cats sold for $84,350 at an auction in Switzerland. The extinct predators received their name from their long, curved saber-shaped teeth. As for the skeleton, it was found last year at a U.S. ranch and measured in around 4-feet long.
Slap William Shakepeare’s name on nearly anything, and you’re bound to generate interest at an auction. That’s what happened this past fall in California, when a rare copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio sold for almost $10 million, becoming the most expensive piece of literature to appear at an auction. The First Folio was published in 1623 and contains a collection of 36 plays, including 18 that weren’t published at the time, including “Macbeth.” The compilation is one of five remaining copies that is still privately owned.
In 1954, an 18th-century vase sold for a mere $56, then proceeded to spend the next 60-plus years in the house of an elderly European woman. During the six decades, the vase not only collected dust but also grew in value. Try several millions in value. In 2020, the vase sold for $9 million at a Hong Kong auction. The porcelain vase, made for Qianlong Emperor who ruled China in the 1700s, is considered one of the more notable art pieces from that era.
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