If you were wealthy enough & held an interest, which historical pieces would you consider buying at auction?
Asked by
ucme (
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June 25th, 2011
Inspired by the recent selling of Capone’s shooter. If you were at all interested in purchasing an item from history, anything at all, what could that possibly be?
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24 Answers
The lost works from the library of Alexandria. However, seeing as those works are all destroyed, and you are probably looking for things that have survived, I will say the queen of England’s crown, the great big one with the jewels.
@poisonedantidote good choice on the The Great Library! Imagine discovering all that literature on the ancient world. A real collection of knowledge from the mediterranean world, we would learn so much from that, no doubt!
The birth certificate of Jesus.
Failing that, any one of Obama’s would do.
A castle in Europe.
A medieval war sword.
A good pre-1700 katana.
Various European sculpture.
I would want the USS Monitor and the CSA Merrimack. Then I could recreate the battle that changed naval warfare.
I’d buy the entire Maxfield Parrish art collection, and about a 10,000 acre ranch, maybe in Montana or the Sierras. Rocky mountain high would be my mega wealthy dream. Oh, and some very expensive horses, Fresians, Gypsy Vanners, Saddlebreds, Missouri Fox trotters and Andulusians. Oh, and of course, my custom like 3 acre goose pond with an island and weeping willow trees. :-D
You do know that you can at least see the recently-raised Monitor at the Mariner’s Museum in Hampton Roads, VA, @WestRiverrat? I hadn’t realized that it was actually being recovered and if not “reassembled” at least set out for display, until I got there several years ago. What a great surprise.
Thomas Jefferson’s diary.
Blenheim Palace, the land given and construction begun by Queen Anne for the first Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill (yes, of those Churchills) for being a kick-ass general.
And then Her Majesty broke up with John’s wife Sarah (whom many believe the Queen was having it off with) and stopped giving money toward the construction.
Even the royal family knows this palace beats any of theirs, any day of the week. The current Duke, Sunny, still lives there with his 5th wife.
Ben Franklin’s kite, Einsein’s notes; apparently, there are 10’s of thousands of them at Hebrew U. or one of the Israeli U.‘s that he donated them to.
Medieval inquisition torture tools and devices. This also includes objects that weren’t meant for physical pain, like humiliation masks. I’d love to make a museum of that stuff. Not just small stuff either, my museum would totally need a ducking stool.
@Symbeline There is a museum of those things in Prague. Disturbingly fascinating, and well worth a visit if you ever get a chance.
Me, I would like some artifacts from pre-Roman Celtic Britain. Something like this would be very nice indeed.
Ernest Hemingway’s Key West house;
Jackie Kennedy’s White House antiques collection;
Elvis Presley’s house;
My choice of Picasso’s paintings;
John Lennon’s England mansion;
Liz Taylor’s clothes and jewelry;
Area 51;
Paula Dean’s clothes, jewelry and her entire PD cookware set. that’s enough for now.
Michelangelo’s notebooks
Coins bearing the name and image of Joseph of Egypt.
Bust of Nefertiti
One of the Dead Sea Scrolls
The first spacesuit that Neil Armstrong wore to walk on the moon and a couple of the moon rocks he brought back
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hannah House
There are so many things that I would want to buy, I can’t even compose a list. I just want everything that is historical, put it into one giant house, and live a happy life.
I really want to buy Einstein’s brain though.
Wow; I wish we had gone into his house. “No,” he says; “they charge x number of dollars to go inside.” God.
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