The coffin lid was sold at an auction held in the UK this past Saturday, fetched way more money than expected

Sep 15, 2014 20:57 GMT  ·  By

This past Saturday, an Egyptian coffin lid estimated to be well over 2,300 years old sold for a whopping £12,000 (roughly €15,054 / $19,516) at an auction organized by Willingham Auctioneers in the UK.

What's interesting is that the lid, a photo of which is available next to this article, was expected to fetch just £1,000 to £2,000 (approximately €1,254 / $1,626 to €2,509 / $3,252). Thus, it sold for way more than expected.

Where did the coffin lid come from?

Well, obviously, the coffin lid's first home was Egypt. It was not too long ago found hidden inside a seaside house in Essex, UK, by auctioneer Stephen Drake, who was told by folks at Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum that it dated back to around 330 BC.

The coffin lid was brought to the UK by a big game hunter and journalist known as Captain William “Tiger” Sarll, who left it to his wife when he passed away in 1977. The Captain's wife died some time after, in 2005, and the couple's descendants came in possession of the artifact.

By the looks of it, auctioneer Stephen Drake came across the ancient Egyptian coffin lid after the couple's relatives asked him to have a look around their home in Essex. At that time, the seaside house was undergoing extensive renovation work.

“'It really was quite bizarre. I'd been asked to look at the house by relatives of the previous owner, who'd died. When I got there the renovation work was fully under way, and a large hole had been smashed in one of the outside walls,” Stephen Drake said in a statement.

“When I stuck my head through and looked inside, I was surprised to see the coffin lid leaning up against a wall in the corner, covered in dust and cobwebs. There was a painted face on it and some hieroglyphics. It was just like a scene from an Indiana Jones movie,” he added, as cited by Daily Mail.

The Egyptian coffin lid's rightful owner

This past Saturday, the Egyptian coffin lid was bought by a woman whose identify has not yet been shared with the public. Apparently, this woman plans to soon put it on display at a private museum, so folks living in or visiting the UK can hope to one day get the chance to see it in person.

The problem is that the Ministry of Antiquity in Cairo is well convinced that the coffin lid belongs to the Egyptian people, and is doing its best to have it returned to its birthplace. In fact, the  Egyptian embassy in London even went as far as to try and prevent the sale, claiming the lid was illegally being auctioned off.

“We tried to encourage the auction house to convince the family that we are keen to repatriate it to its country of origin. We wanted them to give it up voluntarily but unfortunately they refused,” an embassy official reportedly told the press in an interview. “This is not a normal commodity; you have to give perspective to the cultural element here and our right to repatriate this,” he added.