With photos (somewhat grizzly!)
Staff at a Newcastle auction house have been a little nervous of late, refusing to do anything that means being in the building on their own.
The reason is a 2000-year-old mummified hand which they'll be auctioning in December.
It comes in its own glass-covered, mahogany box but is far from the prettiest thing the company have sold.
It's claimed it's the hand of Queen Cleopatra - though the auctioneers can't yet guarantee which one.
Andrew McCoull, from Anderson and Garland, says: "The hand itself is what can only be described as a yellowy, leathery colour.
"It's a lady's hand, a left hand, with manicured fingernails which are still there and evidence of what was possibly a ring on one of her fingers - there's a sort of a dark patch - but, all in all, it's a pretty gruesome looking object."
1 comment:
The cynics amongst us would suggest that the name of "Cleopatra" is more of a selling point, rather than fact.
It would be interesting what the Cairo Museum and Dr Hawass will have to say about its origins.
Stuart
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