It might seem like all the priceless treasures of the world are locked up in museums, universities and government institutions, but that's far from the truth.
Because while big finds are rare, they do happen. Whether it's a stolen piece of fine art or a long-lost artifact out of antiquity, items often change hands, and their origins can easily become muddled or forgotten entirely.
At least until someone with the right knowledge and a whole lot of luck recognizes one of these valuables as the unbelievable find that it is.
So the next time you're considering tackling that mess in the attic or waking up early to hit the garage sale circuit, motivate yourself with the thought that today could be the day you stumble across your big find. Because eventually, items tend to resurface, and sometimes they're full of surprises. Often very valuable surprises, at that.
Could your closet house an amazing artifact?
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10: The "Huck Finn" Manuscript
Samuel Longhorne Clemens -- better known as Mark Twain -- finished "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" in 1885. Because of the book's smashing success, the curator of the Buffalo Library asked Twain to donate the novel's handwritten manuscript. Unfortunately, Twain could only locate half the sheets, which he sent along anyway. The other half was long believed to have been lost.
In 1990, however, the literary world was in for a shock. The granddaughters of the library's former curator and avid manuscript collector James Fraser Gluck announced that they had located the missing part of the manuscript in, of all clichéd places, a steamer trunk in one of their attics.
Presumably, Gluck had forgotten he'd received the second half of the text during his lifetime, but now the two sections are reunited in the Mark Twain Room of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library.
Mark Twain is famous today for his iconic writings.
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9: The Declaration of Independence
Of the 200 original copies of the Declaration of Independence, only a few are known to have survived. But surprisingly, considering it's such an iconic document, that number occasionally inches up a notch as another copy is uncovered accidentally. In 1989, for example, a man paid $4 for a used picture frame at a garage sale. When he went to remove the canvas, he uncovered copy No. 25. In 2009, copy No. 26 was discovered across the pond in the National Archives located in Kew, West London. It was unknowingly nestled in with other documents from the era, only to be uncovered during an unrelated search.
8: The Venus de Milo
The famous sculpture known as the Venus de Milo was discovered in 1820 by a farmer who was allegedly looking for stones he could fashion into a wall.
Some sailors from France arrived on the scene shortly after he uncovered the top portion of the statue and offered the farmer money to continue digging for further missing portions.
Although not all the pieces were recovered, the remarkable statue was deemed exquisite enough for further attention.
Eventually, the semi-complete statue was shipped to France and presented to King Louis XVIII who donated it to the Louvre, where it remains to this day.
The Venus de Milo, while not complete, is still revered for its grandeur and grace.
Image Credit: Photos.com/Photos.com/Thinkstock
7: The Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden more than 20 centuries, until a young shepherd stumbled across them in 1947. All told, archaeologists eventually found 11 caves in the area northwest of the Dead Sea that contained ancient texts on a great variety of biblical and nonbiblical topics, as well as pottery, cloth and scraps of wood. The Dead Sea Scrolls are comprised of some 800 to 900 manuscripts (although many are highly fragmented), and they are written in both Hebrew and Aramaic. Because they shed light on the early development of both Judaism and Christianity, the scrolls have generated great interest ever since their discovery.
6: The Cave of Lascaux
On Sept. 12, 1940, four French teenagers exploring the Cave of Lascaux stumbled upon what is likely the most famous collection of cave paintings in the world. Not long after, two of the discoverers were deported to Buchenwald Concentration Camp, but they survived and all four eventually reunited in 1986.
As for the cave, radiocarbon dating puts the decorative embellishments that adorn the walls at about 15,000 and 20,000 years old. Hundreds of animals including horses, deer, aurochs, cats and bison are depicted, along with geometric designs and mysterious narrative scenes that include human figures as well. This accidental discovery amazed many, but interest from the masses threatened the preservation of the artwork, so the cave was closed to the public in 1963. A replica was later constructed so visitors could still experience something of the marvel that comes with being surrounded by ancient and wondrous cave paintings.
5: An Unknown van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh was a well-documented artist, but in 1991, a Milwaukee couple discovered they were in possession of one of the prolific painter's few unknown pieces.
They had an art appraiser over to look at another painting of theirs. Thinking the van Gogh was simply a replica, they laughed when he told them he thought it was an original.
But it turned out he was right. Lacking an official name, the painting was dubbed "Still Life with Flowers" and was later auctioned off by its then-enlightened owners.
Some more famous van Gogh works
Image Credit: Grant Faint/Photographer's Choice/Getty Images
4: A Forgotten Pharaoh
In 2000, when a couple of Egyptologists visited the God's House Tower Museum of Archaeology in Southampton, England, they never expected to come across a 2,700-year-old statue of an Egyptian king. But that's exactly what they found. The statue reportedly portrays King Taharqa, who ruled during Dynasty 25 and is believed to have been a prolific builder. Since the museum's collection contained mainly local archaeological finds, it's unclear exactly how the statue wound up there. At the time of the discovery, Taharqa's statue was filling an ignoble role as the museum staff's rack, but that quickly ended when the experts identified it. The statue's origins are a mystery, but there's no way it will ever be confused with a place to prop up bicycles in the future.
3: Aztec Monoliths
Workmen in Mexico City have more than once stumbled upon massive Aztec monoliths while repairing underground utility lines and digging building foundations.
In 1978, for example, they came across a circular bas-relief weighing many tons that portrayed the moon goddess Coyolxauhqui in a classic story of Aztec mythology.
They were simply following in the footsteps of another group of workers who had unearthed a Sun Stone in 1970.
The encore occurred in 2006, when a third group of workers uncovered a similarly massive monolith, this one dedicated to the earth goddess Tlaltecuhtli. All three were found near the Templo Mayor.
Aztec carvings like this one likely still lie beneath the busy streets of Mexico City.
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2: The Duke of Alcantara
This story started in 1732, when a very special Stradivarius violin named the Duke of Alcantara was crafted by the Italian master of violin-making, Antonio Stradivari of Cremona. The instrument -- one of only 1,200 made -- was eventually donated to the University of California at Los Angeles. In 1967, however, the Duke disappeared, thanks in part (or entirely) to the carelessness of a certain member of the University's string quartet.
Fast-forward all the way to 1994, when the Stradivarius resurfaced in the shop of Joseph Grubaugh, a violin dealer who recognized it for what it was. A debate ensued concerning who was the rightful owner -- the school or the person who currently had custody of it -- but eventually the lawsuits were settled and the Duke of Alcantara returned to UCLA.
1: The Terracotta Army
In 1974, a farmer in China wanted a new well on his land, so naturally he started digging. But rather than discovering water, he came across a giant underground cavern containing one of the most unique -- and enduring -- armies ever formed. Of course their longevity was due to the fact that they were made entirely out of terracotta, but it's their distinctiveness that really makes them amazing. More than 8,000 warriors have been unearthed at this point, and reportedly all were individually made: Each sports distinct features modeled in intricate detail.
Assembled by the same visionary who ordered the groundbreaking for a little something we know today as the Great Wall of China, the Terracotta Army stands as a testament to the incredible, if somewhat inexplicable and vainglorious obsessions of an ancient emperor.
It just took a little digging to uncover this marvel so we could enjoy it again in modern times. The question is: What else is hiding out there waiting to be found?
The warriors of the Terracotta Army were crafted to guard the tomb of their emperor after his death.
Image Credit: Digital Vision/Digital Vision/Thinkstock
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