Top 10 Valuable Items Found by Accident
#10: “Kid Icarus” (1986)
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Retro video games only get more valuable as the years go on, and many classic titles can be worth a small fortune today. That’s what one Californian, Scott Amos, found out when he searched through some of his childhood possessions at the request of his mother, stumbling across a copy of “Kid Icarus” on the NES that he’d never opened. Still in its original packaging and with a receipt for authenticity, the game was auctioned off and went for a cool $9,000 to a collector. Amos had no idea that he’d forgotten such a valuable find in his mom’s house for thirty years, and he spent the windfall on a Disney family vacation.
#9: Signed Sneaker
Michael Jordan is one of the most famous basketball players of all time, which is why it’s so shocking that anybody could think to throw out a signed sneaker he once wore. The sneaker was found in a dumpster outside Capital Court Mall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as the building was set to be demolished in 2001, and used to be displayed in one of the mall’s stores. It was found by Jordan fan Larry Awe, a worker at the mall, and saved from the landfill. Awe decided to put the Nike up for auction in 2019, and it was authenticated as being an early Air Jordan made in 1984. It was expected to fetch $20,000 at auction.
#8: 1.25lb Gold Nugget
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Nobody expects to find a large gold nugget while walking their dog, but that’s exactly the stroke of luck one Australian family encountered in 2019. The family remained anonymous when interviewed by the press, but couldn’t believe their good fortune – made even more serendipitous by the fact the family dog is named Lucky. Weighing in at around 20 ounces, the family planned to put the gold nugget up for auction, estimated to be worth roughly $24,000 US dollars at the time. It wasn’t the first or last time large pieces of gold have been found in Australia, either, with similar finds in 2018 and 2020.
#7: Cognac
It’s believed an ancestor of this French family was paid for his labor in bottles of Cognac rather than money back in the nineteenth century, and three of those bottles remained in the family’s cellar for hundreds of years, getting totally forgotten about. Specifically, the vintage dates to 1762, making it one of the oldest bottles of spirits ever sold at auction when it went up for sale at Sotheby’s in 2020. Of the three bottles, two were sold and one was given to a museum; the largest of all commanded the highest price tag, naturally, going for almost $150,000 to a collector. We can only imagine what the Cognac must taste like – if the collector even dares to open the bottle.
#6: Ambergris
Sometimes nicknamed “grey amber” or “floating gold,” ambergris is – without mincing words – whale vomit. The reason it’s so sought after, despite being obviously difficult to acquire, is that it’s invaluable in the luxury perfume industry; hunting down pieces of ambergris is big business. But one fisherman in Thailand wasn’t looking for whale vomit when he stumbled across a 14lb piece of it in 2019. Though it’s not legal to sell ambergris in some parts of the world because, historically, whales had to be slaughtered to get it, that isn’t true for Thailand; the fisherman hoped to get over $300,000 when the chunk was auctioned.
#5: Walrus Chess Piece
Much like harvesting ambergris, walrus ivory is also highly regulated today – but that certainly wasn’t the case 900 years ago when this medieval chess set was carved. The set is called the “Lewis chessmen” and it was found in Scotland in 1831, having stayed hidden there for hundreds of years. But it had a problem: the set was incomplete, with five missing pieces that disappeared somewhere over the centuries. Then, in 2019, a family came forward having found one of the missing pieces in their home, having bought it for under $10 in the 1960s. That piece alone was estimated to be worth over $1 million.
#4: The Declaration of Independence
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There actually isn’t just one copy of the United States’ Declaration of Independence, there were 201 official ones made – and over the years, some of those missing copies have turned up in strange places. One famous find happened in 1989 in Pennsylvania, where somebody spent a whopping $4 on an old painting and found an early printing of the Declaration hidden inside, valued at close to $1 million at the time. Much more recently, a copy was found as far away as Scotland in somebody’s attic, this one selling for $4.5 million to an anonymous buyer. You never know; maybe someday you’ll stumble across an invaluable copy of the Declaration of Independence.
#3: “Christ Mocked”
This painting by Cimabue was missing from its series for more than 700 years, and it depicts Jesus Christ’s treatment by the Romans throughout his sentencing and crucifixion. For centuries, nobody knew where the painting was, until it somehow showed up in a French woman’s kitchen in 2019. Shockingly, it had been hanging there above the stove for decades, and was finally identified by an auctioneer when the woman decided to sell her home. It was sold for nearly €20 million, but the French authorities then put an export ban on the piece. Since December 2019, France has been fighting to raise the money to buy the work itself so that it can be displayed in the Louvre for all to see.
#2: Dürer Drawing
A foremost Renaissance figure, Albrecht Dürer hailed from Germany and produced many beautiful works of art during his lifetime, including many sketches. One such sketch from 1503 miraculously appeared at an estate sale in Massachusetts in 2021. Regarded by the seller and the buyer as a likely, but still impressive fake, it was bought for only $30 – only to later be authenticated as a genuine Dürer potentially worth upwards of $50 million. It actually took some time for it to be taken seriously as a genuine Dürer, too, with many experts also assuming it was a fake not worth their time. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few Honorable Mentions: The Churchill Collection The Belongings of Britain’s Most Famous Prime Minister Were Found in a Garbage Dump “Fake” Diamond Ring This $15 Fake Ring Turned Out to Be a 26-Carat Diamond Meteorite Worth $100,000, This Space Rock Was Used as a Doorstop for Decades Picasso’s Plate Bought for $100 in the ‘70s, It Was Made by Picasso & Actually Worth Over $10,000 Lunar Samples NASA Definitely Didn’t Mean to Auction off Pieces of the Moon for Less Than $1,000
#1: Venus de Milo
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Any work of art is only worth whatever somebody is willing to pay for it, but some pieces are so extraordinarily important that they absolutely have to be publicly displayed for all to enjoy instead of being auctioned off to a private collector. This is true for the Venus de Milo, one of the world’s most iconic statues, which has been kept in the Louvre for the last two centuries. The work of a foremost sculptor in Ancient Greece, Alexandros of Antioch, the Venus de Milo was found completely by happenstance in 1820 by a farmer who was digging up stones from the ancient ruins on his property. Truly, the Venus de Milo is priceless.
