- 6 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:09Mysteries can be buried anywhere, under the earth, beneath the sea, or even right under
00:19our own feet.
00:21And when we stumble upon them, sometimes what we find can change history.
00:31Tonight, a look back at some of the most valuable discoveries we've ever featured, from a lost
00:37royal masterpiece.
00:38These things sell for millions of dollars, but there are eight of them that are missing.
00:43When he looks at this photograph of this lost golden egg, it seems like a dead ringer for
00:49what's in his kitchen cabinet.
00:51To a super secret stash.
00:53In David's hands is the holy grail of comic books.
00:58It's like the Big Bang for the modern-day superhero genre.
01:04To an astonishing national treasure.
01:07There's something wedged between the painting and the wood backing.
01:10He takes it to Sotheby's to have it examined, and their experts know immediately he's found
01:14something special.
01:16Join us now, because nothing stays hidden forever.
01:29Antiques, old clothes, dusty heirlooms.
01:32That's all one woman thought she'd find while cleaning out her dad's house.
01:37But what she uncovered turned out to be worth far more than just memories.
01:44It's 2004 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Susan Hendry-Turot is going through the belongings of her
01:50late father, Basil Hendry, Sr.
01:54They're going through antiques and old clothing and some religious artwork that he had collected.
02:00Susan keeps a few paintings that have sentimental value, and then assigns the rest to a pile that she's
02:08willing to sell, including a dark, old, gloomy painting of Jesus Christ.
02:16So a year passes, and Susan finally gets around to having these paintings appraised.
02:20The appraiser isn't really blown away by any of them, but he thinks that that one of Jesus
02:25could maybe get $750 from the right collector.
02:28But when the painting hits the auction floor, something happens that shocks everyone.
02:34The bidding starts low, but several paddles go up, blasting past the $750 mark.
02:42They start going above $2,000, $3,000, and eventually this painting sells for roughly $10,000.
02:52Susan pockets the money and doesn't really think much more about it
02:56until a few years later, when her phone starts ringing off the hook.
03:01Out of nowhere, members of the media begin calling Susan, asking her about this Jesus painting
03:07that she sold at auction.
03:09They asked, where did you find it?
03:11Where did it come from?
03:12And most importantly, did she know what she had?
03:15To most, it looked like just another old painting.
03:19But as the new owners embark on a skilled restoration, a very different story comes to light.
03:25As they clean it up and remove the dark layers of paint on the surface,
03:31a new, different image starts to be revealed.
03:36The group takes infrared photographs to get a better look at this image that's peeking through.
03:41They see what's called a pentamento, which is basically a tracing of an earlier piece.
03:54Based on this, the new owners believe they've uncovered a lost work
03:59from one of the most famous artists of all time, Leonardo da Vinci.
04:05As it's carefully restored, the piece becomes easily recognizable as a missing da Vinci
04:11known as Salvatore Mundi, which translates to the savior of the world.
04:15The revelation sparks a flurry of headlines.
04:20How did such an important work of art end up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana?
04:26Susan believes that her father acquired the painting from her Aunt Millie,
04:31but no one ever mentioned that this painting was anything overtly special.
04:37With little to go on, experts dig deeper to better connect the dots.
04:42Researchers tracked down records from a Sotheby's auction in 1958 featuring the estate of James Cook,
04:49the grandson of famous British art collector Sir Francis Cook.
04:54Sure enough, there's a record of Aunt Millie buying this painting for 45 pounds, roughly 120 bucks.
05:02Once it's fully restored, the Salvatore Mundi goes back up for auction in 2017.
05:11This time, a member of the Saudi royal family buys it at auction for 450 million dollars,
05:21making this, once-discarded painting, the most valuable piece of art in world history.
05:30You'd think if you were spending almost a half a billion dollars on a painting,
05:34you'd want to show it off, but nobody's seen it since the sale.
05:39The rumor is that it is in a high-security vault somewhere in Switzerland,
05:44and with the history of the Salvador Mundi of appearing and disappearing,
05:49we may never see it again.
05:52Or maybe we will.
05:57Some treasures hang on the wall in plain sight.
06:00Others turn up in the backyard, buried in dirt, like this next story.
06:08In 1940, the Jones family of Peterstown, West Virginia, is internationally famous.
06:16Grover and Grace Jones are the equivalent to modern-day celebrities,
06:20and that's because they have 15 children.
06:24But here's the kicker.
06:25All of them are boys.
06:29According to Ripley's Believe It or Not, this is a world record.
06:34But incredibly, this won't be the family's biggest moment.
06:38That starts a decade earlier, when Grover finds something unusual.
06:43Back in 1928, Grover is playing horseshoes with his eldest son, whom they call Punch.
06:50During the game, one of Punch's tosses goes way off course,
06:53and so Punch goes off to find the lost horseshoe.
06:57And he notices a cool-looking rock sticking out of the ground.
07:04To Punch and his father, this looks like an interesting piece of quartz,
07:08which is common in that area of West Virginia.
07:11So they put it in a cigar box, put it on the shelf in the family shed, and forget about
07:18it.
07:19Fourteen years later, Punch develops an interest in rocks
07:22and remembers the piece of quartz he found with his dad.
07:26Punch reaches out to a geology professor named Roy Holden at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
07:33So Holden pulls out his magnification loop, and when he gets a closer look,
07:38he's stunned at what he finds.
07:40This rock is not a piece of quartz.
07:43It's an actual diamond.
07:46More specifically, it's a 34-carat alluvial diamond,
07:51and it's the largest ever discovered in the United States.
07:56Alluvial diamond is the term we use for diamonds that have been dislodged from their point of origin.
08:03Erosion over millions of years washes them away,
08:06and then they settle in riverbanks or on the ocean floor.
08:11But alluvial diamonds this size are found almost exclusively in Africa.
08:18So how did it find its way to a West Virginia backyard?
08:22Back in the 1920s, a circus comes to Peterstown,
08:25and along with the bearded lady and the carnival barker was an African elephant.
08:32Perhaps the diamond was embedded in the elephant's foot back in Africa,
08:36then dislodged later in the U.S., where it eventually winds up in Punch and Grover's backyard.
08:43Bottom line, it's as good a guess as any,
08:45because even Holden, the geologist, can't seem to figure out this mystery.
08:48But regardless of that, it's an incredibly lucky find.
08:52Lucky or not, a rock like that isn't going to stay secret for long.
08:57Word gets out, and soon buyers are lining up.
09:01The diamond sells for just over $200,000 in today's currency.
09:06It's purchased by an anonymous Asian buyer.
09:10There's not much known about him, and for the last four decades,
09:13the Punch diamond has gone completely underground.
09:17Nobody knows where it is, nobody knows who has it,
09:20and nobody knows if we'll ever see it again.
09:28What begins as a casual stroll through a local swap meet
09:32turns into the discovery of a lifetime for one lucky man.
09:39In 2004, a Midwestern scrap metal dealer is at his local flea market,
09:44hoping to find some undervalued materials to flip and make a few bucks.
09:49In one stall, he finds a three-inch tall ornamented oval piece
09:54that has a clock embedded on it, and it sits on a small stand.
09:59He can tell that the item's made of real gold,
10:01so he estimates the weight and decides to take a gamble.
10:06He pays $13,000 for it.
10:09That's a lot of money for him, but he decides to take the chance.
10:12Maybe he can sell it and make a few hundred bucks profit.
10:15Back home, the man weighs the egg-shaped fine
10:18and realizes he's overestimated the amount of gold.
10:24Unwilling to take the loss, he puts it in his kitchen cupboard,
10:28and it sits there for nearly a decade.
10:34In 2012, he's cleaning out his kitchen
10:37and comes across the gold ornament.
10:39He thinks, okay, it's time to get rid of this thing once and for all.
10:43So he decides to do a little research,
10:45and he enters the word egg into a search engine,
10:48along with a name that he found on the clock inside the ornament.
10:53Vacheron Constantine.
10:54When the results come back, he can't believe his eyes.
10:58One of the first results that he gets
10:59is an article in Britain's Daily Telegraph
11:01that questions,
11:03is this 20 million pound nest egg on your mantelpiece?
11:08It seems crazy, but when he looks at this old black-and-white photograph
11:12of this lost golden egg,
11:13it seems like a dead ringer for what's in his kitchen cabinet.
11:18The resemblance is uncanny,
11:20but could his flea market fine really be a rare Fabergé egg?
11:27Fabergé is one of the finest makers of jewelry in the world,
11:32but what they're most famous for
11:34is a series of jeweled eggs
11:37that were made in the late 1800s and early 1900s
11:41for members of the Russian imperial family.
11:44Each one was a unique, beautiful work of art
11:47that took Fabergé's jewelers over a year to make.
11:51Only 69 of them were ever made.
11:54The most famous were a group of 50,
11:56known as the Imperial Easter Eggs,
11:58that were made for the Russian czars
12:00to be given as Easter gifts to their mothers and wives.
12:04These things sell for millions of dollars.
12:07They're certainly not the kind of thing
12:08you'd expect to find at a flea market.
12:10Most of them have been accounted for,
12:12but there are eight of them that are missing,
12:14and that makes them even more valuable.
12:18Eager to find out if this is, in fact,
12:21one of the missing Imperial Easter eggs,
12:24the scrap metal dealer flies to London
12:27to meet with expert Kieran McCarthy.
12:30As soon as this American pulls out his artifact,
12:32McCarthy's jaw hits the floor.
12:36This is an actual lost Imperial Easter egg
12:41from Tsar Alexander III.
12:44So how could such a priceless treasure
12:46end up at a Midwestern flea market?
12:52Initially, the egg belonged to the Romanov dynasty
12:55before it was overthrown by the communists
12:58in the October 1917 revolution.
13:01Most experts believe that the egg was stolen
13:04sometime after the revolution
13:06and fell into the hands of some Western collector.
13:10But after that, the story gets really cloudy.
13:14Then, in 2011, the egg resurfaces.
13:18A Fabergé researcher found a photo of the egg,
13:21which in 1964 in New York
13:23was sold at an auction for the Rena Clark estate.
13:27It went for $2,450.
13:29Not much is known about Clark,
13:31and there's no information on whoever bought the egg.
13:34We do know that the egg was only described
13:36as gold watch in egg-formed case.
13:39It's likely the person who bought this
13:41had no idea about the artifact's actual value.
13:44So when that person passed away,
13:45it went into a donation pile.
13:48From there, the egg slips through unknown hands
13:52until it turns up at that flea market.
13:55When it's finally put up for sale in 2014,
13:59it's bought by a private dealer.
14:02While we don't know the exact amount
14:04our scrap metal dealer got for his egg,
14:07insiders believe that this $13,000 flea market find
14:11could have sold for as much as $33 million,
14:16which would make it the most expensive Fabergé egg ever sold.
14:23That royal egg shows us how far treasures can travel.
14:27Our next find proves sometimes a big payday can be hiding much closer to home.
14:36In 2013, in the small town of Elbow Lake, Minnesota,
14:40a guy by the name of David Gonzalez buys a home that was built in 1938 for $10,100.
14:48He's a house flipper, and while the house has good bones, that's about it.
14:54He begins demo on the investment property,
14:57but he soon notices something strange within the walls.
15:02The house isn't insulated like you would expect.
15:05It's not foam or fiberglass.
15:06There's a lot of crumpled newspapers in between the studs.
15:09Now for David, this is just another day at the office,
15:12so he starts pulling out the crumpled pieces of newspaper section by section
15:16until he sees something colorful in between all of that black and white.
15:22He pulls it out from the newspapers and realizes it's a comic book,
15:26and on the cover is none other than the Man of Steel himself, Superman.
15:32The comic is showing its age.
15:35It's beat up on the corners.
15:36It's yellowed.
15:38But David immediately notices something startling.
15:40The date on the cover, June 1938, the same year the house was built.
15:47David isn't a comic book collector,
15:49but he obviously knows that Superman is one of the most iconic comic book heroes of all time.
15:56So he figures a really old Superman comic has to be worth something.
16:02David leaves the newspapers in a pile and jumps online.
16:06What he finds nearly knocks him off his feet.
16:09In David's hands is Action Comics No. 1.
16:14This is the holy grail of comic books.
16:20This comic isn't just the origin story of Superman.
16:24It's like the Big Bang for the modern day superhero genre.
16:27But before it kick-started a billion-dollar superhero empire,
16:33Action Comics No. 1 was just another novelty on the newsstand.
16:38Back in 1938, when Action Comics No. 1 was released,
16:41it was selling for about 10 cents a copy,
16:43which in today's money is around two bucks.
16:46At the time, nobody would have thought anything of its worth
16:49beyond its inherent entertainment value.
16:52You read it, you enjoy it, you throw it out,
16:55or in this case, stuff it inside the walls of a new house.
16:58Around 200,000 copies were originally printed,
17:01and today, only about 100 are believed to still exist.
17:05So David could be sitting on a gold mine
17:08worth far more than the house flip.
17:11Needless to say, the man is thrilled.
17:13And so he brings it home,
17:15and he wants to show it off to his family,
17:16and they're all just as excited.
17:18They invite friends and more family
17:21to come over and see this rare find,
17:23and everything is going well
17:25until his wife's aunt shows up.
17:28She grabs Action Comics No. 1
17:32and starts waving it around.
17:34David attempts to grab it back.
17:38In the chaos of the moment,
17:40the back cover rips.
17:44Damaged or not,
17:45this is still one of the most
17:47sought-after comic books in the world.
17:49So David puts it away for safekeeping
17:52until he can put it up for sale at auction.
17:55Even in less than perfect condition,
17:56it sells for a whopping $175,000.
18:02But experts think that the tear
18:04cost David anywhere between $50,000 and $75,000.
18:09So without that tear,
18:11this copy of Action Comics No. 1
18:13could have sold for a quarter of a million dollars.
18:17Thanks, Auntie.
18:18It was a costly mistake,
18:20but David bought the house
18:22for just over $10,000,
18:23and he's walking away
18:25with more than 17 times that
18:27from something that he literally
18:29pulled out of the wall.
18:30All in all,
18:31it's a much better return
18:33than any house he could have flipped.
18:42Most people come to Yosemite for the trees,
18:46but in the 70s,
18:47some folks came looking for greener treasure.
18:52In the winter of 1977,
18:55a man named Ron Likens and his friends
18:57were all waiters at the famous Awani Hotel
19:01in Yosemite National Park.
19:03They decide on their day off
19:05that they are going to go snowshoeing
19:08into the frozen tundra
19:09of the Yosemite backcountry.
19:13About six miles into their hike,
19:16they spot something surprising.
19:20It's a debris trail,
19:22and then suddenly,
19:23they encounter an airplane wing
19:26just sitting out there in the snow.
19:30They head back
19:31and report it to the park rangers,
19:33and before long,
19:34officials from four government agencies
19:37swarm to the area.
19:38They follow the debris trail
19:40and eventually come to a twin-engine plane
19:44in a frozen lake.
19:48Officials fire up chainsaws
19:50and start cutting it out of the ice.
19:53When they cut open the cargo hold,
19:55they see something incredible.
19:58They find marijuana,
20:00literally tons of it.
20:03They estimate there are 6,000 pounds
20:05of weed in the hold.
20:07Authorities spend the next week
20:09hauling bundles of it
20:10out of the Yosemite Valley.
20:12Unfortunately,
20:13their work is cut short
20:14when a huge snowstorm rolls in.
20:17A full wintertime salvage operation
20:19would be too hazardous,
20:21so the feds have to press pause
20:22on the entire operation
20:24and wait for the spring.
20:25Before they leave for the season,
20:27they run the tail number
20:28to ID the plane.
20:30It belongs to a guy named John Glisky,
20:32who's been on the DEA's radar
20:34for a while.
20:35He's a former Army helicopter pilot
20:38in Vietnam
20:38and now a full-time smuggler.
20:42Authorities contact Glisky's wife
20:44and she shares what she knows.
20:46She confirms that about a month earlier,
20:49on the night before the crash,
20:50he loads up three tons of weed
20:52at a dusty airstrip in Baja
20:54and under the cover of darkness,
20:56flies it into the United States.
20:58But the run ends in disaster.
21:02Glisky's plane goes down in Yosemite,
21:07leaving both men dead
21:09and three tons of marijuana
21:11entombed in ice.
21:13Some people overhear
21:15off-duty DEA agents at a bar
21:17talking about how
21:19they had to leave this wreck
21:20until spring
21:21with tons of drugs still inside.
21:24Among those who hear it
21:25are three anonymous hikers
21:27who race to the scene days later.
21:29When they reach the plane,
21:31one of them sticks his arm
21:33into a hole next to the cockpit
21:34and pulls out
21:35a plastic-wrapped bale.
21:38Now word spreads like wildfire
21:41and in the days that follow,
21:43a stream of hikers
21:44brave the elements
21:46to get to the goods
21:47at what they're calling
21:49Dope Lake.
21:51Dozens and dozens of hikers
21:53make the 32-mile round trip.
21:56Some of them carry out
21:59200-pound loads of marijuana
22:02worth about $50,000 at the time.
22:06In just one week,
22:07over a half a million dollars
22:09of marijuana
22:10goes missing at the hands
22:12of opportunistic Yosemite hikers.
22:16Rangers launch a surprise raid,
22:18but only nab two hikers.
22:20All of the true culprits
22:22are never identified.
22:23And the crime slowly fades
22:26from memory.
22:28It's one of the wildest
22:29forgotten stories
22:30in American crime history.
22:32But for a brief window
22:34in the 70s,
22:35Dope Lake turned Yosemite
22:37into the most lucrative
22:38hiking trail on the planet.
22:445,000 miles away in the UK,
22:47another machine hides
22:48a hoard even more valuable.
22:55British businessman Nick Mead
22:57has an unusual enterprise,
23:00a company called Tanks-A-Lot.
23:05They purchase decommissioned
23:07military tanks
23:08from all over the world
23:09and they rent them out
23:09for special events,
23:10weddings,
23:11kids' birthday parties.
23:12And for $3,000,
23:14he'll even give you
23:14a guided tour around London.
23:18So it's fair to say
23:19that Nick's a tank guy
23:20and he's always on the lookout
23:22for something new
23:23to add to his fleet.
23:25One day while he's browsing online,
23:27Nick comes across
23:28a real score.
23:31It's an ex-Iraqi military
23:33Type 69 main battle tank
23:35that was used in the Gulf War.
23:37This is a tank
23:38with a lot of power.
23:39It has a 100mm main gun
23:41and a 12.7mm machine gun.
23:44And believe it or not,
23:46Nick gets it for less
23:47than the price
23:48of a lot of new cars.
23:49$37,000.
23:52When the Iraqi tank arrives,
23:56Nick and his mechanic
23:57dive right in.
23:59And when they get
24:00to the gas tank,
24:01they find it's remarkably heavy.
24:05They're excited,
24:06but also very cautious.
24:08If you can limp a bit.
24:11What's the mess?
24:12Why is it?
24:13What tank?
24:15No.
24:16Inside the fuel tank,
24:18there are five gold bars
24:20with an estimated cash value
24:22of $2.4 million.
24:25Oil has been called
24:27liquid gold,
24:28but how did actual gold
24:30end up in this tank?
24:33In August of 1990,
24:35during the first Gulf War,
24:39Iraqi troops storm into Kuwait
24:41and loot almost everything inside.
24:45They steal the gold bath fixtures
24:48from the Emir's palace.
24:50They take computers.
24:51They take rare antiquities
24:53in Islamic art.
24:54They even take animals
24:56from the Royal Zoo.
24:59But their celebration
25:01is short-lived.
25:02U.S. forces intervene
25:03and liberate Kuwait
25:05in February 1991.
25:07And the return
25:08of the looted merchandise
25:09becomes a crucial part
25:11of the peace negotiations.
25:14Six months after the end
25:15of the conflict,
25:16the Iraqis returned
25:17about 3,200 gold bars
25:20to Kuwait
25:20under U.N. supervision.
25:22And that gold was worth
25:23a whopping $700 million.
25:27But it seems
25:28not everything is sent back.
25:32The Iraqi troops
25:33do their best
25:34to hide their plunder,
25:35and the gas tank
25:36of an armored vehicle
25:37seems as good
25:37as any place
25:38to hide their loot.
25:39Then eventually,
25:40the vehicle makes its way
25:41to Great Britain,
25:42where it's purchased
25:43by a young mechanic
25:44who puts new tracks
25:45on the vehicle
25:46and repairs the engine,
25:47but he never checks
25:48the gas tank
25:49before selling it to Nick.
25:53To his credit,
25:54when he discovers
25:55the gold bars,
25:57Nick reports them
25:58to the authorities.
25:59British authorities
26:00show up,
26:01they take the gold bars,
26:02and they give Nick
26:03a receipt.
26:07This is all done
26:08with the explanation
26:09that they're going
26:09to find the rightful owner
26:11and return the gold bars
26:12to that owner.
26:13But it's been
26:14over seven years now,
26:15and as far as Nick knows,
26:17the gold bars
26:18have not been returned
26:19to their original owner.
26:22He even tells reporters
26:23that he regrets
26:26turning the gold
26:26over to the cops
26:27and feels that he should,
26:29at the very least,
26:32have got a finder's fee.
26:37At a flea market,
26:38one man spends four bucks
26:40on an old frame.
26:42What he finds inside
26:43is a priceless piece
26:45of American history.
26:52While browsing
26:53at a local flea market
26:55in Adamstown, Pennsylvania,
26:56a man spots
26:57a dull and worn
26:59painting of a country scene,
27:00but he's not interested
27:02in the painting.
27:02He's interested
27:03in the frame
27:04that's around it.
27:06It's gilded
27:07and ornately carved,
27:09and he wants it
27:09for a different picture
27:10he already has.
27:11So this guy
27:12plunks down four dollars
27:13and buys it.
27:15The man takes it home
27:17and begins to remove
27:18the painting
27:19from the frame.
27:20That's when he sees
27:21something strange.
27:22There's something wedged
27:24between the painting
27:25and the wood backing.
27:27It's about the size
27:28of an envelope.
27:29He unfolds it
27:30and he realizes
27:32it's the Declaration
27:34of Independence.
27:36He doesn't think
27:37much of this at first.
27:38I mean,
27:39it's the Declaration
27:40of Independence
27:41and there are copies
27:42of this everywhere.
27:43But it looks like
27:44a pretty old copy.
27:46Curiously,
27:47this copy contains
27:49no signatures
27:50by the founding fathers.
27:52He has a friend
27:53who's a bit
27:53of a history buff
27:54who encourages him
27:55to go and get it
27:57appraised
27:57just in the off chance
27:59that this might be
28:00something valuable.
28:02He takes it to Sotheby's
28:04to have it examined
28:05and their experts
28:06know immediately
28:06he's found something special.
28:09It's not just any copy
28:11of the Declaration
28:12of Independence.
28:13It's a pristine
28:14first edition.
28:16When we think
28:16of the Declaration
28:17of Independence,
28:18we think of
28:19the signed version
28:20of the document.
28:21But that version
28:22was actually signed
28:23and completed
28:24on August 2, 1776,
28:27four weeks
28:28after the original
28:30Declaration
28:30of Independence
28:31was issued.
28:33You see,
28:34when the Continental Congress
28:35adopts the Declaration
28:36of Independence
28:37on July 4, 1776,
28:40it has a Philadelphia printer,
28:42John Dunlap,
28:43print 200 copies
28:45that evening
28:45to carry the news
28:46of independence
28:47out to the people.
28:48Over the next few days,
28:49they're distributed
28:50to several
28:50colonial assemblies
28:52and leaders,
28:52including George Washington.
28:54And they become known
28:55as the Dunlap Broadsides.
28:58But how did
28:59this priceless document
29:01end up behind a painting?
29:03In 1776,
29:05the colonies
29:05were still under
29:06British rule.
29:07Having a copy
29:08of the Declaration
29:09of Independence
29:09in your back pocket
29:10would lead to treason.
29:12So some theorize
29:13that the original owners
29:14stashed it behind the frame
29:16to hide it from the British.
29:17Most of the Dunlap copies
29:19are owned by institutions,
29:20mostly in America,
29:21a few in the UK.
29:22But this is only the third
29:24to be held in private hands.
29:26So when it goes up
29:27for auction at Sotheby's
29:29in 1991,
29:30it sells for $2.4 million.
29:34This is the highest price
29:36ever paid
29:36for a piece of Americana
29:38at the time
29:38and a heck of a return
29:40on a $4 investment.
29:44This next valuable fine
29:46holds the words
29:47of another American original.
29:53In 1990,
29:55Barbara Testa
29:55is going through
29:57some old boxes
29:58and bags in her attic.
29:59As she digs
30:01and rummages
30:02through the clutter,
30:03she comes across
30:03some old family letters
30:05and some of her grandmother's
30:06handwritten poems
30:07in an old steamer trunk.
30:09But then,
30:10Barbara pauses.
30:13Tucked between
30:14the familiar stories
30:15and memories
30:16are pages
30:17in a handwriting
30:18she doesn't recognize.
30:20As she's reading
30:21the pages,
30:22they appear to be
30:23a part of a manuscript
30:24and the words
30:25are becoming
30:26more and more familiar.
30:28Right is right
30:29and wrong is wrong.
30:31And a body
30:31ain't got no business
30:32doing wrong
30:33when he ain't ignorant
30:34and knows better.
30:37Barbara's uncovered
30:38a handwritten manuscript
30:39of Mark Twain's masterpiece,
30:42The Adventures
30:42of Huckleberry Finn.
30:46Barbara reaches out
30:48to Sotheby's
30:49who sends
30:49an armored truck
30:50to her home
30:51to collect the book.
30:53Sotheby's works
30:54with the Mark Twain
30:55Papers Project
30:56at UC Berkeley.
30:57They compare
30:58the handwriting,
30:59style,
31:00and structure
31:01to other authenticated
31:02Mark Twain manuscripts.
31:04Sure enough,
31:05the handwriting
31:06matches perfectly.
31:07But there's a twist.
31:09It's only half the book.
31:11The rest is missing.
31:13Barbara tells
31:14the researchers
31:15that her grandfather,
31:16James Fraser Gluck,
31:18was the curator
31:19of a library
31:20in Buffalo, New York.
31:22And the man
31:23was a zealous collector.
31:26Researchers discovered
31:27that back
31:28in the mid-1880s,
31:30Gluck had contacted
31:31Samuel L. Clemens,
31:33better known as Mark Twain,
31:34requesting the manuscript
31:36for his collection.
31:38Twain,
31:38who was a former resident
31:40of Buffalo, New York,
31:41agreed to send Gluck
31:42the handwritten manuscript
31:43of a Huckleberry Finn,
31:44but he only finds
31:46the second half of the book.
31:47So that's what he sends
31:48over to Gluck,
31:49which remains in the library
31:50to this day.
31:52And that's where
31:52the story is thought to end.
31:54But it turns out
31:55in 1887,
31:57unbeknownst to everybody,
31:59Twain did find
32:00the first half
32:01and he sent it to Gluck.
32:02Except for some reason,
32:04it never makes it into
32:05the Buffalo Library's collection
32:07to join the second half
32:08of the book.
32:10Twain lovers
32:10are ecstatic.
32:12And so are Barbara
32:13and her sister
32:14who plan on auctioning it off
32:16to make a pretty penny.
32:17But before the bidding
32:18even starts,
32:20they get a notice
32:20from the Buffalo Public Library
32:22claiming they own the rights
32:25to Barbara's half
32:26of the manuscript.
32:27While Barbara wants
32:29to sell the book,
32:30the library wants
32:31to keep it
32:32with the other half
32:33in their collection.
32:34After some legal
32:35back and forth,
32:36the two sides
32:37finally reach a deal.
32:39Barbara and her sister
32:40get a finder's fee
32:41of $1 million,
32:42and the library
32:43promises to put
32:44Twain's complete manuscript
32:46on display
32:47just as her grandfather
32:48intended.
32:49So all in all,
32:50everybody ends up
32:51getting what they want
32:52114 years later.
32:59Sometimes the most
33:00valuable finds
33:01are the ones
33:02we overlook.
33:03Take this next story
33:04about a rare piece
33:06of American history.
33:13March 1962.
33:1556-year-old George Walton
33:17is driving in heavy rain
33:18in North Carolina
33:25when his car collides
33:26head-on
33:27with another vehicle.
33:28Tragically,
33:29he doesn't survive
33:29the crash.
33:31The police arrive,
33:32and it's a mess.
33:34There's glass,
33:35there's metal,
33:36there's just debris
33:37everywhere.
33:38But there's something
33:39unusual scattered
33:41around the highway.
33:44dozens upon dozens
33:45of coins,
33:46but these aren't
33:47just regular
33:47nickels and dimes.
33:49The coins look old
33:50and really unfamiliar
33:51to the officers,
33:52so they pick them up
33:53along with George's
33:54other belongings.
33:55George was a bachelor,
33:57and so his estate
33:57gets managed
33:58by his siblings,
34:00and ultimately,
34:00his coins get sent
34:01to an auction house
34:02to sell.
34:03It turns out,
34:04George's quiet hobby
34:05is worth a fortune,
34:07and his collection
34:08sells for a staggering
34:11$875,000.
34:13But not all the coins
34:14are sold.
34:15One of them
34:15is a 1913 Liberty Nickel,
34:19one of the rarest
34:20coins in history.
34:21This five-cent piece
34:23is engraved
34:24with a likeness
34:25of Libertas,
34:26also known
34:27as the Goddess
34:28of Liberty,
34:29whose image originates
34:31from ancient Roman coins.
34:33Liberty Nickels
34:34officially stopped
34:35being released in 1912,
34:37but in 1913,
34:39a mint employee
34:40named Samuel W. Brown
34:41ended up secretly striking
34:43five of these
34:44to sell on the black market.
34:46Over the years,
34:47four of them
34:48have been located,
34:49but the elusive
34:50fifth Liberty Nickel
34:51has yet to be found.
34:53The nickel
34:54has all the markings
34:56of a historic discovery
34:57until experts
34:58take a closer look.
35:01Unfortunately,
35:02the coin
35:03is determined
35:03to be a fake.
35:05George's siblings
35:06take the forgery,
35:07put it in a closet,
35:08and forget about it.
35:10Dismissed and forgotten,
35:12the nickel
35:12stays buried
35:13for decades
35:15until a 2003
35:17coin convention
35:18in Baltimore
35:19puts it back
35:20in the spotlight.
35:22The main attraction
35:23is that this
35:24coin convention
35:25is featuring
35:26the 1913
35:28Liberty Nickel.
35:30The organizers
35:31of the show
35:32put out a call
35:33to the public
35:33hoping that someone
35:34might come forward
35:35with the final coin.
35:37And that's when
35:38George's family
35:39starts to wonder,
35:41should they give
35:42the fake coin
35:43one last look?
35:45So they dig it out,
35:46head to the convention,
35:47and in a secret room
35:48at the Baltimore
35:49Convention Center,
35:50six experts
35:51compare their nickel
35:53with the other four,
35:54including one
35:55that has been authenticated
35:57by the Smithsonian.
35:59And it turns out
36:00the so-called fake
36:02is actually real
36:04and one of the most
36:05sought-after coins
36:06in history.
36:07In the 1940s,
36:09George purchased
36:10the coin
36:11for $3,750.
36:13He held onto it
36:14for years,
36:15and in 1962,
36:16he packed it up
36:17alongside his collection
36:19and drove them
36:20to a coin convention.
36:22Sadly,
36:23he never made it,
36:23dying in that
36:24fatal car crash.
36:25In 2013,
36:28George's family
36:29puts the Liberty nickel
36:30up for auction,
36:31and it sells
36:32for $3.2 million.
36:35All told,
36:37George's collection
36:38brings in
36:39over $4 million.
36:42A nickel
36:43that everyone thought
36:44was worthless
36:45turns out
36:46to be priceless.
36:47So,
36:48as they say,
36:49don't take any
36:50wooden nickels,
36:50but buy all
36:51the rare ones
36:52you can.
36:58not all treasures
36:59are hidden.
37:00Sometimes,
37:01they stare you
37:02right in the face
37:02every night at dinner,
37:04which is exactly
37:05what happened
37:06to three brothers
37:07in 2015.
37:12The Landau brothers
37:13hated the painting
37:15that was in their
37:16dining room
37:16in their childhood home.
37:18They found it
37:19kind of creepy.
37:22It depicts
37:23an unconscious
37:24young man
37:25being tended to
37:26by two people,
37:27one of whom
37:28is trying to
37:29resuscitate the youth
37:30with smelling salts.
37:32According to family lore,
37:35the grandfather
37:35bought the painting
37:37before the Great Depression
37:39at an estate sale
37:40and handed it down
37:42from generation
37:43to generation.
37:45In 2011,
37:46after the brothers'
37:47parents died,
37:49the painting
37:50ends up
37:51in the basement
37:53where it's forgotten
37:54for several years.
37:57Then,
37:58in 2015,
37:59the brothers decide
38:01it's time
38:02to clean out
38:02the basement.
38:04And when they
38:05rediscover the painting,
38:06they reach out
38:07to a professional
38:08appraiser,
38:09John Nye.
38:11Nye is
38:13not impressed
38:14with the painting,
38:14which he calls
38:15remarkably unremarkable.
38:18But,
38:18he thinks
38:19it might
38:19be worth
38:20something.
38:22So he goes,
38:23okay,
38:23on a good day,
38:24maybe we'll get
38:26$500 to $800.
38:28So,
38:29in 2015,
38:30Nye and company
38:31set up the painting
38:31for auction.
38:33Now,
38:33the brothers
38:34are not expecting
38:35anything to come
38:36of this.
38:36Their expectations
38:37are in fact so low
38:38that they don't
38:39attend the auction.
38:40The auction goes
38:41pretty much
38:42the way Nye
38:43thought it would
38:44at first.
38:44The bidding starts
38:45at $250,
38:47then it goes
38:48to $500.
38:50Then,
38:51all hell breaks loose.
38:53A French bidder
38:54jumps in
38:54at $5,000.
38:59Suddenly,
39:00we have an
39:00international bidding war
39:02on our hands.
39:03$8,000,
39:04$10,000.
39:05Now,
39:05this painting
39:06is reaching into
39:07six-figure region.
39:08$100,000,
39:10$200,000.
39:11The bids
39:13continue to go up.
39:16When the final
39:17gavel strikes,
39:18a French dealer
39:20walks away
39:21with this painting
39:22for $1.1 million.
39:28Needless to say,
39:30John Nye
39:31is in complete shock.
39:34It turns out,
39:36Nye missed
39:37an important detail
39:38on this work of art.
39:41In the upper right-hand
39:42corner of the painting,
39:44there appears to be
39:45some writing,
39:46but it's hard
39:47to make it out.
39:49The dealers think
39:50the writing
39:50is a monogram
39:51that spells out
39:53R-H-F.
39:57Rembrandt
39:57Harmonson
39:58Fessett,
39:59which stands for
40:00Rembrandt,
40:01son of Harman,
40:03made this.
40:05The French dealer
40:06believes
40:07that this is one
40:08of Rembrandt's
40:10senses,
40:11a series
40:12that the artist
40:13produced early
40:14in his career
40:15when he was only
40:1618 years old.
40:17The five senses
40:19being a popular
40:20theme at the time
40:21for artists
40:21to depict.
40:22This painting
40:24depicts the sense
40:25of smell.
40:28The French dealer
40:29gets the painting.
40:30He has it authenticated,
40:32and it turns out
40:33that it is
40:34one of the missing
40:35Rembrandts.
40:36That $1.1 million
40:38windfall
40:39turns out to be
40:40nothing compared
40:41to what happens next.
40:43The dealer now
40:44turns around
40:44and sells it
40:45to Thomas Kaplan,
40:47who is a collector
40:48of fine art
40:49from the Dutch
40:50Golden Age.
40:51And it's reported
40:52that Kaplan
40:53buys it
40:53for around
40:54$4 million.
40:56which is a profit
40:57of $3 million
40:58to the French dealer.
41:00For Kaplan,
41:01the painting
41:02is invaluable.
41:03He already has
41:05three of the other
41:06Rembrandt's senses
41:07paintings.
41:08And the last one
41:09about taste
41:10is still missing.
41:13So,
41:13if you have
41:14a creepy painting
41:15hanging in your
41:16dining room
41:17depicting a
41:18woman tasting
41:20something,
41:20it might be worth
41:21having that appraised.
41:24a frame,
41:25a wall,
41:26a backyard,
41:28or a free market,
41:29keep your eyes open
41:30because sometimes
41:31valuable treasures
41:33have a way
41:34of finding you.
41:35I'm Danny Trejo.
41:36Thanks for watching
41:38Mysteries on Earth.
41:39Mysteries on Earth.
Comments