5. The Easter Egg a Scrap Dealer Almost Melted
A scrap metal dealer in the American Midwest bought a golden egg ornament with a little clock inside. He paid about $14,000, and the plan was to sell it for scrap gold and make a modest profit.
Nobody would pay what he wanted. So he did what anyone would do: he searched the internet for the name engraved on the clock, Vacheron Constantin, plus the word “egg.” That led him to a newspaper article about a lost Russian treasure.
He was holding the Third Imperial Easter Egg, made by Carl Fabergé in 1887 for Tsar Alexander III and missing since the Russian Revolution. He flew to London to show a photo to the specialists at Wartski, who confirmed it.
Wartski sold the egg to a private collector for an undisclosed sum. Press reports say as much as $33 million, but the dealers would neither confirm nor deny that figure. The finder reportedly received a life-changing amount.