In 1996, a piano made by Broadwood & Sons of London was bought by Graham and Meg Hemmings. In 2016, they donated it to Bishop’s Castle Community College as they were “downsizing” their home. In 2017, a technician was called to tune the 110-year-old piano.
While checking the piano, the technician, Martin Backhouse, found that the keys were a bit sluggish. So, he started taking out the keys and spotted a stitched packaging underneath the keys. Thinking that it was moth balls, Backhouse took it out. But the packaging was quite heavy. So, he cut off the end with a penknife and found gold coins inside.
Stunned by the discovery. the technician immediately went to the school office. There he showed the packaging and coins to the headteacher. When they pulled out rest of the keys they discovered 900 gold sovereigns. The history of the piano is being tracked now to find out if the original owner of the packages can be identified.(1,2)
7 A man bought a tank from eBay and decided to restore it. While working on the tank, he discovered five gold bars worth £2m inside the fuel tank.
In 2017, Nick Mead, 55, bought a tank, a Russian T54/69, from eBay for £30,000. He, along with his mechanic friend, Todd Chamberlain, was working on restoring it. While opening the tank he decided to film it so that if they found any weapons inside they can show it to the bomb disposal crews.
But instead of weapons, Nick found solid gold bars hidden in the fuel tank. He uncovered five gold bars, each weighing 12 lbs. The net worth of the gold bullion is believed to be around £2 million.(1,2)
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8 Two investors bought a Long Island house intending to fix it up and sell it. They found thousands of works by late artist Arthur Pinajian, who used to live there. The paintings are now valued at $30 million.
In 2007, two investors, Thomas Schultz and Larry Joseph, bought a dilapidated bungalow in New York’s Long Island for $300,000. They intended to repair the bungalow and sell it for around $100,000 more than they paid.
But when they entered the garage, they found thousands and abstract paintings, created by Armenian-American artist Arthur Pinajian. When the duo contacted the previous owner, the Pinajian family, they were advised to simply throw away the art. But instead the investors agreed to buy the art for $2,500.
After buying the lot, the two men began restoring the collection. In total they now own 70,000 paintings, sketches, and journals of Arthur Pinajian. Even though Pinajian never received critical recognization during his lifetime, his works gained recognition after his death. The works of Pinajian owned by Thomas Schultz and Larry Joseph is now valued at around $30 million.(1,2,3)
9 In 2012, two amateur metal detectors discovered one of the largest hoards of Celectic coins worth £10m buried in a field.
Two amateur metal detectors from New Jersey, Reg Mead and Richard Miles, spent 30 years searching the fields of New Jersey. They began their search when they heard rumors that some silver coins were discovered by a farmer on his land in this area. They got their first success in February 2012 when they found 60 silver coins and a single gold coin.
Hoping they would find more, they carried on their search with a deep scanner metal detector. They hit the jackpot when they found a hoard of ancient coins worth about £10 million. The duo uncovered about 50,000 Celtic silver and gold coins. Experts have estimated that the coins belong to 1st-century BCE and have laid buried for 2,000 years or more. The exact location of this discovery has been kept secret.(1,2)
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10 During the taping of “Antiques Roadshow” a man discovered his family heirloom to be a Rodin sculpture worth around $500,000.
In the summer of 2016, a man from Houston, James Keener, came to the Fort Worth Convention Center for a taping of “Antiques Roadshow.” For the show, he brought a sculpture along with him. The sculpture was a family heirloom which he thought was worth a few thousand dollars. But during the show he came to discover that the bronze sculpture is actually the creation of famous French sculptor Auguste Rodin. The sculpture owned by James Keener is known as “Eternal Spring” and is believed to be worth $400,000 to $500,000.(1,2)
