The value of a homemade lamp
John Barrett of Bath, England, inherited a 19-inch marble urn when his father died in 1975. It being the ’70s, he drilled holes in the urn, ran wire through them, and topped his creation with a lightbulb and a red lamp shade. After Barrett died last year, auctioneers from Christie’s evaluated the lamp; they determined that the repurposed urn dated from the first century A.D. “It was a bit of a monstrosity,” said Georgiana Aitkin, head of antiquities at Christie’s. The urn sold last week to a European dealer for more than $700,000. The lamp shade wasn’t included.
Dog gets stuck between two walls
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A shar-pei mix was extricated from a tight squeeze in Riverside County, Calif., this week. The dog, a stray subsequently named Wally, was wedged in a 6-inch gap between two 6-foot concrete walls. A complaint about barking brought animal-rescue workers to the scene, where they knocked down a wall to free him. Wally, who earned a bean-and-cheese burrito for his patience during the 40-minute rescue, is now up for adoption. Authorities speculate that he was pursuing a rabbit when he got stuck. “He was clearly able to get himself in this situation, so he’s a curious guy,” said Animal Control spokesman John Welsh.
Student finds $2,000 in local thrift store
Yekaterina Shneyderova, a 22-year-old student at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, was examining a cash box for sale at a local thrift store when she found something unexpected inside—$2,000. “I saw the money and the envelope with an address and I thought it might be someone’s life savings,” she said. “I couldn’t keep it.” Shneyderova gave the money to the store manager, Lance Letson, who returned it to the rightful owners, Ronald and Imogene Crowder. The Crowders gave Shneyderova a $200 reward—and the cash box.
