A man in Indonesia made an incredible discovery when he found a strange, waxy-looking stone while walking on the beach. Little did he know, this stone turned out to be ambergris, also known as whale vomit, and it was worth a whopping $470,000! Ambergris is a rare substance produced in the intestines of sperm whales and is highly prized by the perfume industry for making scents last longer. When the man realized what he had found, he was shocked by its value. It’s not every day you find something like that just lying around! So, next time you see something odd on the beach, it might just be worth a fortune. Credit: BBC Scotland / YouTube CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0: LewisChessmen: By National Museums Scotland, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83115528 Cimabue: By Nicolas de Larmessin and Esme de Boulonois, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83853829 Animation is created by Bright Side. #brightside ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/ Listen to Bright Side on: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/idhttps-podcasts-apple-com-podcast-bright-side/id1554898078 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brightside/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official/ Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Snapchat - https://www.snapchat.com/p/c6a1e38a-bff1-4a40-9731-2c8234ccb19f/1866144599336960 Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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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!