Marble flowerpot revealed as £300,000 Roman coffin

A large marble flowerpot that has been languishing in the gardens of Bleinheim Palace for more than a century has turned out to be a Roman sarcophagus worth £300,000.

The chance discovery of the ancient stone coffin came when an antiques expert visited the stately home in Oxfordshire for an unrelated insurance valuation, the Telegraph reports.

The expert urged palace officials to take a closer look after spotting ornate carvings on the container.

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Specialists removed the marble front section of the flowerpot to find carvings depicting a drunken Dionysus, the god of wine, leaning on an equally inebriated woodland god.

The stone coffin had been used for 100 years to grow tulips in the rock garden of the house, which was Sir Winston Churchill's birthplace.

This is not the first time a Roman artefact has been used as a flowerpot by owners unaware of its origins.

In 2013, a couple in Northumberland sold a Roman marble coffin for £40,000. They had been using it to grow plants for 30 years, unaware of its true value.

The couple contacted antique experts after they read about a story of a sarcophagus being discovered in a garden the year before, says the Telegraph.

Investigators found that the coffin dated back to either the first or second century AD.