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A diamond ring originally bought for $13 has been discovered to be worth around $456,000.
Bought in the 1980s at a garage sale in London, the undervalued ring had a rusty ring mount. The owner, who mistook it for costume jewelry, wore it constantly for years while going through her daily routine. However, the piece turned out to be a 26-carat white diamond ring from the 19th century.
After a jeweler informed the owner that it could be of substantial value, the ring was brought to Sotheby’s, a UK-based multinational art dealer. Sotheby’s evaluated the ring and verified its authenticity by having it examined at the Gemological Institute of America.
According to Jessica Wyndham, head of Sotheby’s jewelry department, the ring was deceiving and gave the impression that it was not an authentic stone because its old-fashioned style of diamond cutting did not reflect light as much as modern cutting does.
Aside from the ring, there have been other items bought at low prices that were later discovered to be extremely valuable. One was a collection of glass negatives, or photographic plates, bought for $45 at a garage sale. The authenticated negatives, now worth at least $200 million, turned out to be the lost work of renowned nature photographer Ansel Adams.
Another item with an unanticipated value was a thousand-year-old Chinese ceramic bowl from the Northern Song Dynasty. Although it was sold for $3 at a garage sale in the United States, it was auctioned off at $2.2 million to a British dealer.