These Sphinx Patio Ornaments Were Offered for $700 at an English Auction House. Turns Out They’re Ancient—and Sold for $265,000

A flood of bidders seems to have known something that the auctioneer did not.

Artnet News, October 14, 2021

Last weekend, a pair of sphinx statues were offered up at a small auction house in England. Weatherworn after spending the last 15 years in the garden of a local couple, they were estimated to fetch £300 to £500 ($410 to $680).

But it turns this was not to be a garden variety sale at all. They ended up selling for £195,000 ($266,000).

Mander Auctioneers, the Suffolk-based firm that organized the sale, described the three-foot-long sculptures as 19th-century replicas of Egyptian sphinxes. But bidders seemed to have known something the auctioneers didn’t.… | Read Full Article – https://news.artnet.com/market/pair-weatherworn-sphinx-statues-sold-265000-small-england-auction-house-estimated-go-less-700-2020828?fbclid=IwAR1sIykpLt3fiBzIoo9DlBADsz9BeiAUG_jg-txN2Lh45XfpLOLQ9Lm9ha8