Missing finger found in drawer proved profitable

A newly-discovered digit sparked a bidding frenzy at an auction house and added over £30,000 to the price of a pair of statues. Newcastle auctioneers Anderson & Garland were selling a pair of 18th Century garden sculptures. The near life-sized male and female lead figures were expected to sell for between £10,000 and £15,000 - with the price reflecting the fact that one of the sculptures was missing a finger.



But on the morning of the auction, the seller found the missing finger in a drawer. And the discovery sparked some frenzied bidding for the now complete statues, adding a goodly number of extra digits to push the final price paid to £50,000. The 60in tall garden figures feature a male Harlequin holding a mask and a female dancer with an outstretched arm, which had once held a tambourine. The lot was originally entered into the sale minus the finger, which had broken off the male figure at some point and was believed to be lost.



The unnamed vendors, who discovered the missing finger in a drawer, inherited the statues and had previously displayed them in their garden in Northumberland. Anderson & Garland auctioneer, Fred Wyrley-Birch, said: “These are rare and very desirable garden features that people would love to own. “The male figure had always been missing his right index finger and having the piece recast would have cost well over £1,000.



“But the client found the finger in the back of a drawer on Thursday morning and called us up, shouting down the phone: ‘I’ve found the finger, I’ve found the finger!’ They rushed in with it before the lot went under the hammer, and fortunately we had time to inform the telephone bidders who had already expressed an interest in the figures.” A bank of eight telephones, plus bidders online and in the room battled it out and pushed up the price of the lot to £50,000. It eventually sold to an undisclosed telephone buyer.