217. Vintage Babe Ruth Found In Piano
Location: Maryland, USA
Year Discovered: 1992
Est. Value: $130,000*
Ellen Kelly was in for a surprise when she sat down to play her late Aunt Nora’s piano she was never allowed to play during her life. She had nabbed the heirloom for a mere $25 and, wanting to make the most of her money, tried to play it.
Vintage Babe Ruth Found In Piano ©JJs/Alamy
But the piano sounded weird every time she hit a note, and more than 25 years passed before she discovered the reason: more than 110 vintage baseball cards had been stacked inside it. Kelly deduced that her aunt’s brothers had hidden the collectibles there decades ago and eventually auctioned the Babe Ruth card for a whopping $130,000.
218. World War II Bills Found Under An English Retail Store
Location: Brighton, England
Year Discovered: 2018
Est. Value: $2 million*
Brighton’s Cotswold Outdoor Store desperately needed a makeover, so shopfitter R. Davis decided to take matters into his own hands. He ripped up a piece of rotten carpeting and tiles, only to unearth something other than dirt: a thick wad of £5 and £1 notes issued by England during WWII.
World War II Bills Found Under An English Retail Store /atlasobscura.com
It is likely that the Jewish owners of the shop had stashed the money there under the threat of a Nazi incursion but never had the chance to use it. But these are only speculations since the real story is yet to be unearthed.
219. Caligula’s Ceremonial Shop Mosaic Mistakenly Turned Into A Coffee Table
Location: Manhattan, USA
Year Discovered: 2017
Est. Value: Unknown
Helen Fioratti’s antique coffee table that she acquired for thousands of dollars as a family heirloom wasn’t the center of attention until the Italian military police’s Art Recovery Unit came knocking, claiming that the piece belonged to a tyrannical and merciless Roman Emperor.
Caligula’s Ceremonial Shop Mosiac Mistakenly Turned Into A Coffee Table /atlasobscura.com
Fioratti never knew that her coffee table’s origins dated back to Caligula and that she had been housing a masterpiece stolen from the Roman emperor’s lavish “pleasure boats” for 45 years in her Upper East Side apartment. The antique is now being returned to Italy, but Caligula seems to be landing people in hot water even after his death.
220. Nazi Enigma Machine Found in The Baltic Sea
Location: Baltic Sea, Northern Europe
Year Discovered: 2020
Est. Value: $100,000-$500,000*
Marine biologist Michael Bwat was on a routine dive in the Baltic Sea when he stumbled upon something rather odd lying on the seabed. What appeared to be a simple rust-infused typewriter at first turned out to be a vintage Nazi enigma machine from the days of WWII.
Nazi Enigma Machine Found in The Baltic Sea @Becky Bracken/threatpost.com
The machine, along with hundreds of others, must have been thrown into the sea during the downfall of the Nazi rule, only to end up being found by a diver looking for discarded fishing tools and ghost nests. Talk about timing!
221. Medieval Jewish Treasures Found In French Candy Shop
Location: Colmar, France
Year Discovered: 1863
Est. Value: Unknown
It is the year 1863. A handyman looks behind a wall of a confectionery in France and rummages through the findings to discover a terracotta pot, 13 gold rings, a wedding ring, and 384 silver coins.
Medieval Jewish Treasures Found In French Candy Shop @JOSEFIN DOLSTEN/timesofisrael.com
Researchers deduced that these artifacts were hidden behind a wall by a Jewish woman named Anch sometime around the 1300s for safekeeping. The treasures were forgotten for more than 500 years before finally revealing themselves to the world and offering a glimpse into the life of Jews in medieval France.
222. Anthony van Dyck’s Original Portrait
Location: London
Year Discovered: 1970s
Est. Value: Unknown
The world believed that only 20 versions of Anthony van Dyck’s portrait of Brussel’s mighty 17th-century ruler, Infanta Isabella C. Eugenia, existed until Chris Wright wandered into a local London antique shop and found a seemingly adequate copy of the original. He decided to buy it for $88, not thinking more of it despite understanding 17th-century art history.
Anthony van Dyck’s Original Portrait ©Maidun Collection/Alamy
It was around 50 years later that experts at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London “tentatively proposed” that the “copy” might actually be an original, possibly hailing from van Dyck’s own workplace.
223. Alien In The Chilean Desert
Location: Chilean Desert
Year Discovered: 2003
Est. Value: Unknown
A strangely-shaped 6-inch long skeleton was unearthed during an expedition in the Chilean desert, reinforcing humankind’s belief in the existence of extraterrestrial beings. Although comprehensive CT scans, X-rays, and genetic data declared it a human fetus, scientists found its bone structure development eerily similar to that of a 6-year-old child.
Alien In The Chilean Desert @EMERY SMITH/nationalgeographic.com
The skeleton had several bizarre genetic mutations, including scoliosis, dwarfism, and 54 rare mutations never seen before. It also had numerous abnormal structures that negated the possibility of it being a human fetus, leaving scientists in an unexplainable dilemma.
224. Roman Treasure in England’s Departmental Store
Location: Colchester, England
Year Discovered: 2014
Est. Value: Unknown
A seemingly ordinary Fenwick departmental store in Colchester, England, shocked the world when a tiny box was discovered beneath its floors in September 2014. The box had sat there untouched by a human for several hundred years and contained priceless gold and silver jewelry dating back to 60AD.
Roman Treasure in England’s Departmental Store /lovemoney.com
This invaluable Roman treasure offers a glimpse into the lifestyle of the Roman empire and thus was put on public display in Colchester Castle. The jewelry pieces remain one of the most prized antiques ever uncovered in the country.
225. Diamonds Found In A Chair
Location: Scotland
Year Discovered: Unknown
Est. Value: $6,485*
Who knew you could find age-old vintage diamonds hidden inside a dusty chair? Fortune smiled on a couple in Scotland, and a similar situation unfolded for them. Angela and Angus Milner-Brown bought a seemingly ordinary chair at an auction for a mere $6.50 (£5) and thought that was the end of it.
Diamonds Found In A Chair ©IMG Stock Studio/Shutterstock
It was only around ten years later that they pulled the chair apart to throw it out and found vintage diamond jewelry worth $6,485 (£5,000) hidden inside. The couple was literally “sitting on a fortune” and never realized it!
226. Jewish Treasure Buried Under The Threat of Nazi Invasion Unearthed in London
Location: Hackney, London
Year Discovered: 2009
Est. Value: $104,000*
Innumerable people have unearthed the terror and uncertainty of WWII that forced thousands of Jews to bury their valuables in secret locations under the threat of Nazi invasion. A similar treasure was unearthed in London when an unsuspecting individual found a gigantic collection of 19th-century US gold coins hidden from plain sight.
Jewish Treasure Buried Under The Threat of Nazi Invasion Unearthed in London ©ReeldealHD on Offset/Shutterstock
Experts deduced that a Jewish family had stacked their coins just before WWII, fearing a German invasion of the UK, and had never managed to retrieve them. A descendant of the family eventually claimed the long-lost treasure.