The item went under the hammer at Hanson’s Auctioneers in London for £7,300, bringing the total paid with the buyer’s premium to £9,490
An old storage box, bought for just 14 euros and given as a gift, turned out to be a rare Louis Vuitton box of enormous value, as the “Mirror” writes.
A father – who asked to remain anonymous – said he bought the trunk in 1984 and gave it to his daughter as a gift when she moved into her first apartment. He bought it from a shop in the village of St Margarets, near Twickenham, London, for his daughter Melissa to use as storage.
Melissa continued to store sheets in the trunk for decades before finally realizing what they were. She took it with her to the Antiques Roadshow last year and was amazed to learn it was a rare, 100-year-old Louis Vuitton box and worth thousands of pounds.
The 56-year-old decided to sell the trunk to protect it from her cats and was stunned when the trunk fetched nearly £10,000 on Saturday.
The item went under the hammer at Hanson’s Auctioneers in London for £7,300, bringing the total paid with the buyer’s premium to £9,490.
Melissa, an estate agent from Middlesex, said: “It was definitely an emotional moment. It was very surreal and stressful to watch. I was trying to video the laptop screen for my husband who was working but it was hard to concentrate while holding the phone steady. My dad bought the trunk in 1984 from an old clothes-antique shop in the village of St Margarets where we lived. He got a job up north, but I didn’t want to go. He bought me the trunk as there was a lack of storage space in my first apartment. I put sheets inside. I’ve always used it, but over time I noticed the Louis Vuitton name popping up more and more on antique TV shows. I realized it can be valuable. Last year I emailed the TV Antiques Roadshow to ask for an estimate and they asked me to bring it on the show».
Chris Kirkham, deputy director of Hansons London, said: “It is a historic item that demonstrates the French group’s design ingenuity and the style of luxury luggage in the early 1900s».
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