It was bought at an antiques market for £50 before being sold to collector James Cranfield for £50,000. The price reached £60,000 after buyer fees were added. It is due to be sold at Auctioneum in Bath, where experts expect it to sell for between £30,000 and £50,000.
A family living in London has discovered a rare mounted taxidermy head of an extinct thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, inside a box stored under a bed. The specimen had been forgotten in storage for decades. It is one of only three known mounted thylacine heads in the world. The discovery comes after the same auction house sold another mounted thylacine head.
That earlier specimen had plastic googly eyes attached by a previous owner.
The specimen is listed for sale at Auctioneum’s upcoming auction on Thursday, 26 November. Auctioneum expects the final sale price to reach or go above its estimated value of £30,000 to £50,000. Because strict laws limit the export and sale of historic animal remains, this is partly.
The auction is expected to attract interest from international institutions, private collectors, and natural history museums. The very small number of thylacine specimens available on the open market also makes the item especially valuable.