MONEY NO OBJECT
A marble bust thought to be of Augustus or even Hercules blew its estimate recently at auctioneers Adam Partridge in Macclesfield, selling for a whopping £320,000, way above its £600-1,000 valuation. It seems there was a bit of a kerfuffle over its age, as reported in The Antiques Trade Gazette, and even the experts were initially fooled.
“Although cautiously catalogued as a late 18th-century Grand Tour piece, the bust was deemed to be ancient with later additions”. Whoops!