You won't believe this wild story! A man had been using a strange rock as a doorstop for years, thinking it was just a regular old stone. Turns out, it was actually a super valuable meteorite! After decades of kicking it around, he finally got curious and had it checked out by experts. The rock ended up being worth a small fortune, way more than he ever expected. Imagine using something priceless to prop open a door all that time! Definitely a lucky find! Credit: BBC Scotland / YouTube CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0: Cimabue: By Nicolas de Larmessin and Esme de Boulonois, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83853829 LewisChessmen: By National Museums Scotland, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83115528 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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FunTranscript
00:00In the 80s, David Mazurek from Michigan decided to buy a farm not far from Mount Pleasant.
00:06The previous owner was showing David around his new property when he noticed a large, weird-looking rock.
00:12It was handily used to keep open a barn door.
00:15Mazurek inquired about the origins of the doorstop, and the farmer explained it was actually a meteorite.
00:22It had arrived at the property with a loud bang back in the 30s.
00:26The following morning, the farmer and his father found the crater the meteorite had left and dug out the guest from space, which was still warm.
00:35They found a practical use for it to serve as the doorstop, and the good news for the new owner was that the meteorite came with the property.
00:43He decided not to change anything about it for as long as he lived at the property.
00:47When he was moving to a new home, he took the rock with him and used it as an interstellar doorstop for another 30 years.
00:55Sometimes, David would let his children take it to school to show it to others.
01:00Then he found out that Michigan residents find and sell pieces of meteorites for some good money.
01:06Since his piece was huge, weighing 22 pounds, he decided to take it to Central Michigan University to find out its value.
01:14A local geology professor was getting tired of similar requests because, for 18 years, the finds that people brought her turned out to be not meteorites at all.
01:24But this time, she could feel something special from the start.
01:28She tested the rock and determined it was a real meteorite made from 88.5% iron and 11.5% nickel.
01:37It turned out to be the sixth largest recorded find of this kind in Michigan and the most valuable specimen she's ever worked with.
01:44They sent a slice for another round of verification to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and it was all officially confirmed.
01:53It also turned out that the meteorite was a piece of an early solar system.
01:58Both the Smithsonian and the Maine Museum considered purchasing the rock for a hefty sum.
02:04In the end, Mazurek sold his meteorite to Michigan State University's Abrams Planetarium for $75,000.
02:12He gave 20% of the money to Central Michigan's University's Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department, where they confirmed the rock's true identity.
02:21For ages, a painting by the renowned 13th-century Florentine artist Chema Bouye seemed to have vanished into thin air.
02:29But in 2019, it made a surprise appearance in the cozy home of an elderly woman residing in the French countryside.
02:37The lady was about to sell the house and invited an auctioneer to see how much she could get for her belongings.
02:43I guess she didn't expect the painting that had adorned a space about a kitchen hot plate could be worth millions.
02:50The auctioneer recognized the painting had the brushstrokes of a famous painter who lived centuries ago.
02:56Expertise confirmed it was an original, a part of a series made in 1280, and one of the only 11 paintings by Chema Bouye left in the world.
03:07Infrared light unveiled subtle corrections the artist had made during the creation process, which only solidified its authenticity.
03:15Art experts thought the painting would sell at an auction for around $6 million, but they were wrong.
03:21The real price the new owner eventually paid was over $26 million.
03:26Back in 1831, a chessboard with intricately carved chess pieces, all made from walrus ivory, was found in the sandy dunes on the Isle of Lewis.
03:37Five of the chess pieces were missing.
03:40Almost two centuries later, a family from Edinburgh brought a chess piece to the prestigious Sotheby's auction house.
03:47The grandfather of the family bought it in 1964 for just $6.
03:51He passed it on to his daughter, and although the family had no idea about the real value or importance of the piece, they felt it was really special.
04:00It was kept in the house as a family heirloom they'd sometimes take out to admire.
04:05As the Sotheby's staff examined the piece, they realized it was a 12th or early 13th century Lewis chess piece from the renowned set.
04:14The other Lewis chess piece had found their home in institutions like the British Museum and the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
04:22The intricate craftsmanship, the historical significance, and the mystery of its journey all added up to the value of the piece,
04:30which sold at an auction in London for $925,000.
04:35Imagine shopping at a car boot sale and getting a 26-carat diamond ring for $13.
04:41Sounds like an urban legend, but it actually happened to a lady in the UK.
04:45She was convinced that her purchase was a piece of costume jewelry and casually wore it around for 30 years.
04:52One day, she decided to check if the ring was worth more than $13 with a local jeweler.
04:58It turned out that the rock was a cushion-shaped diamond set which most likely belonged to royalty or a person of great wealth in the 19th century.
05:07It was before modern diamond mines were discovered, and there were really few of those rocks available in the whole world.
05:14It was so hard to imagine a diamond in it because it hardly looks like the ones we're used to today.
05:20When we think of diamonds, we imagine something sparkling bright.
05:24This one was made for candlelight and had an old-fashioned cut and mount, which darkened over time.
05:30The silver had tarnished, and there was most likely some dirt on it.
05:33The ring was sold at Sotheby's fine jewelry auction in London for almost $850,000.
05:40Experts believe it's not the end of its journey.
05:43The new owner can recut it to make it look more modern, and with more sparkle, it could be worth many times that price.
05:51Back in 2011, Frank Abrams, a defense attorney from North Carolina, stumbled upon a 19th-century tin-type photograph at a flea market.
05:59He purchased it for $10.
06:02It looked like an ordinary picture of five cowboys, but experts had reason to believe that one of these cowboys is none other than the infamous outlaw, Billy the Kid.
06:11Abrams realized that he might possess a historical gem after watching a TV program about a photo featuring Billy the Kid playing croquet.
06:19A Google search led him to images of Pat Garrett, the sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico, who was known for taking Billy's life.
06:27Abrams was stuck as he saw a figure in this photograph that resembled Pat Garrett, and he wondered if the lean man in the background might be Billy the Kid.
06:36He asked for the help of forensic analysts and professors, who had reasons to believe that the photo indeed captured Billy the Kid and Garrett.
06:46A handwriting expert in Texas was able to match a signature on the image to known samples of Garrett's handwriting.
06:53Experts date the photograph to the late 19th century.
06:56How this image ended up in a North Carolina flea market remains a mystery.
07:01Another recently discovered photo of Billy the Kid depicting him playing croquet has been valued at $5 million.
07:08As for Abrams' tin-type, its potential value could be even higher.
07:13Abrams, though, doesn't want to part with this historical treasure. He considers himself fortunate and privileged to have found it.
07:20Larry Awe, a maintenance worker at Milwaukee's Capitol Court Mall, was tidying up the storage room as the mall was about to get demolished.
07:29He found a pair of sneakers tucked away amidst the trash.
07:33He quickly realized that these were no ordinary shoes, and they certainly didn't belong to the discard pile.
07:40Awe noticed a distinctive signature of Michael Jordan on the side of one shoe.
07:45He remembered that these sneakers being showcased in the sports apparel store Playmakers back in the day.
07:50The shoes, a size 13, had the inscription, My Very Best.
07:55Awe decided to put these shoes up for auction, and the expected price for them was set at $20,000.
08:02That's it for today! So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
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