00:00A 55-year-old fisherman from Thailand was on his regular walk on the beach in Koh Sumi
00:05when he found a huge yellow lump of something in the sand.
00:09He thought it might be ambergris, also known as the treasure of the sea and floating gold,
00:14or less poetically, whale vomit.
00:17It's an incredibly expensive substance used mostly in the perfume industry.
00:22For someone making around $10 per day, it could be a life-changer.
00:26The fisherman wasn't 100% sure it was the thing, though, so he put it in his shed and
00:31went back to his job.
00:33The word about the find had spread, and the neighbors offered to help verify if it was
00:38valuable.
00:39They asked for slices to run some tests, but later said it was nothing special.
00:44Almost a year later, the fisherman decided to solve the mystery himself and called the
00:48authorities for a check.
00:50The provincial governor arrived with specialists who confirmed that the find was over 8% ambergris
00:56It also turned out he could sell the find for over $400,000.
01:01The fisherman couldn't be happier.
01:03I guess not.
01:05Similar stories keep coming from different parts of the world.
01:08People finding floating gold worth over a million dollars.
01:12It has been used for over a thousand years.
01:15Whales like to snack on squid and cuttlefish.
01:18Sometimes their beaks and pens stay inside the whale and grow into a huge mass over the
01:23years.
01:24Once it comes out of the whale, ambergris has a terrible odor.
01:28But then it dries out and becomes musky.
01:30The liquid taken out of it helps the perfume keep its scent longer.
01:34The white ambergris is the most valuable, and it's only used in the most expensive
01:39perfumes now.
01:42A woman purchased a painting at a West Virginia flea market for $7.
01:46She wanted to get rid of the drawing and keep the beautiful frame, but for some reason,
01:51she decided to show it to an expert first.
01:54The expert knew the painting was by the famous French artist Renoir.
01:58There was also a French handwriting with a label and a number on the back of the canvas.
02:03The expert instantly found it in the catalog of Renoir's works.
02:08The brushstrokes also matched the image in the catalog.
02:11After some research, the art expert found that the painting was probably given by the
02:15artist to the model who posed for him and was later sold to an American lawyer.
02:20It's worth tens of thousands of dollars!
02:25Jessica Vincent, a horse trader from Virginia, enjoys thrift shopping and has always wanted
02:30to find something that would be worth thousands of dollars at a Goodwill shop.
02:35That time, she noticed a cute glass vase among old kitchen items and canning jars.
02:40She noticed a mark saying Merano Italia at the bottom.
02:44Jessica loved the vase so much, she was ready to pay a lump sum for it, but it was only
02:49$4.
02:50When she brought it home, she posted photos of her purchase on Facebook, and someone recommended
02:56she join a private Merano glass group.
02:58There, they helped Jessica identify the creator of the vase, Italian glass designer Carlo
03:04Scarpa.
03:05The vase was made in the 1940s, and since its creator passed away several decades later,
03:11the vase became a rarity.
03:13Collectors were chasing vases like this, but it was so expensive not many could afford
03:18it.
03:19Jessica then reached out to the president of an auction house in Chicago, who confirmed
03:24that her purchase, especially in those colors, was really rare and valuable.
03:29She loved the vase, but she felt uncomfortable keeping something this expensive at her farmhouse
03:34and needed the money to get heating at her new property.
03:37So she ended up selling the vase at an auction for $85,000.
03:44An elderly couple in France found an African mask while clearing out their second home.
03:49They decided to sell it to a local antiques dealer, who agreed to buy the mask for a little
03:54over $150.
03:57Several months later, they found out from a newspaper that their mask had been sold
04:01at an auction for almost $4.5 million.
04:05It turned out to be a rare mask made out of kaolin-coated cheese wood and used in rituals
04:10in an African secret society.
04:12The husband's grandfather had brought the mask from Gabon, where he lived in the early
04:1720th century.
04:18The couple started a suit against the dealer, who hadn't told them about the true value
04:23of the mask.
04:24They're sure that he knew it because instead of selling the mask at his store, he immediately
04:29contacted auction houses.
04:31The first two underestimated the find, but the third auction house ordered carbon dating
04:36analysis and found that the mask dated to the 19th century.
04:41After an investigation, an appeals court announced that the couple did have a right
04:45to an appeal and froze the proceeds of the sale as the case continued.
04:52Back in the 19th century, a chessboard with intricately carved chess pieces of walrus
04:57ivory was found in the sandy dunes on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland.
05:02It was missing five pieces.
05:05Almost two centuries later, a family from Edinburgh brought a chess piece to Sotheby's
05:09auction house.
05:11They mentioned their grandfather had bought it in the 1960s for just $6.
05:16He passed it on to his daughter, and although the family had no idea about the real value
05:21or importance of the piece, they kept it in the house as a family heirloom.
05:26As the Sotheby's staff examined the piece, they realized it was a 12th or early 13th
05:32century Lewis chess piece from the famous set.
05:35The other Lewis chess pieces ended up at institutions like the British Museum and the National
05:41Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
05:43The intricate craftsmanship, the historical significance, and its incredible journey all
05:48added up to the value of the piece, which sold at an auction in London for over $900,000.
05:57A lady in the UK was shopping at a car boot sale and got a 26-carat diamond ring for $13.
06:05She was sure she was buying a piece of costume jewelry and casually wore it around for 30
06:10minutes.
06:11One day, she decided to check if the ring was worth more than $13 with a local jeweler.
06:17The rock turned out to be a cushion-shaped diamond set, which most likely belonged to
06:21a really rich person, probably royalty, from the 19th century.
06:26It was before modern diamond mines were discovered, and there were really few of those rocks available
06:31in the whole world.
06:33It was so hard to recognize a diamond in it because it didn't look like the sparkling
06:37bright jewel we're used to.
06:40This one was made for candlelight and had an old-fashioned cut and mount, which darkened
06:45over time.
06:46The silver had tarnished, and there was most likely some dirt on it.
06:50The ring went off to Sotheby's Fine Jewel Auction in London for almost $850,000.
06:57Experts say the new owner can recut it to make it look more modern and then could be
07:02worth many times that price.
07:06Before ages, a painting by 13th-century Florentine artist Chemebouy seemed to have vanished into
07:13thin air.
07:14But in 2019, it made a surprise appearance in the cozy home of an elderly woman residing
07:20in the French countryside.
07:22The lady was about to sell the house and invited an auctioneer to see how much she could get
07:27for her belongings.
07:29The auctioneer recognized the painting in her kitchen had the brushstrokes of a famous
07:33painter who lived centuries ago.
07:36Expertise confirmed that it was an original, a part of a series made in the 13th century,
07:42and one of only 11 paintings by Chemebouy left in the world.
07:46Infrared light even showed the subtle corrections the artist had made during the creation process,
07:52proving it was all real.
07:54The new owner paid over $26 million for the painting.
07:58I'm guessing it was before taxes.
08:02That's it for today!
08:03But – hey!
08:04If you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends!
08:08Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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