Convert the attic.. into cash
You never know what valuable gems have been hidden in your house
HOUSEHOLDERS are being urged to check their attics – and even under the floorboards – for hidden treasures and family heirlooms that could be worth a fortune.
It comes as leading Dublin-based auctioneer Ian Whyte revealed that since the pandemic, more and more people have been unearthing hidden gems that were previously gathering dust in their homes.
In one case, a man living in the West of Ireland had a copy of the 1916 Proclamation of Independence – believed to be just one of 50 known to have survived since the Rising – ‘hanging in the kitchen’ without knowing its origin.
The documents fetched €190,000 at auction. Mr Whyte told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘In 2020, we had a chap who phoned us up claiming to have an original copy of the Proclamation. So I drove down to Galway, and I said: “have you got it?” And he said, “yes, it’s hanging in the kitchen”.
‘And I had a look and yeah, it was the genuine thing, just hanging in the kitchen for years.’
Mr Whyte said objects steeped in historic value can be found anywhere, particularly in old houses, or when passed down by prudent relatives.
Just recently, a collection of extremely valuable Beatles memorabilia was brought to him by someone whose parents were at their Dublin concert as teenagers, 60 years ago this week.
They had the tickets, autographs from all four Beatles, a concert programme and a poster of the band, all carefully kept safe for decades – the collection sold for €6,000 .
One woman who found an old painting wrapped up in her attic was shocked to discover it was actually a lost Paul Henry landscape.
Mr Whyte said: ‘Her father had bought it back in the forties for £50 to £100. And she had actually been thinking of giving it away. But instead she got €105,000 at auction.’
Other items Whyte’s Irish Art & Collectables Auctioneers has sold include guns found stashed under floorboards and a rare £10 note.
‘We had one person who found a Tommy gun in their attic, dating back to 1920.
‘That type of machine gun had been sent over to the IRA in Cork during the war of independence.
‘Also, someone came in with a GAA medal made in a particular year, 1895, when the referee had made a mistake and added up the score wrong. It should have been a draw. They’d given the medal to the wrong side, so after, to make it up, they made a special medal, calling it the Virtual Championship. And this man had just dug it up in a field in Co. Meath nearly 100 years later – and made almost €14,000.’ news@mailon
sunday.ie