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Rare Tasmanian tiger head found under London bed could fetch £50,000

By · Via Times of India · Published by Everything Blog

In short

A London family presented the forgotten mounted head to the Auctioneum auction house in Bath after reading about a prior thylacine sale. The specimen, nicknamed "Trevor," will be offered on Thursday, November 26, with an estimated price between £30,000 and £50,000. X-ray examinations confirmed that the authentic skull is safely preserved beneath the undisturbed mount. Bidding interest is anticipated across worldwide natural history museums, academic institutions, and private collectors.

Key points

  • Thylacine populations were completely driven to extinction by hunting bounties, introduce…: Thylacine populations were completely driven to extinction by hunting bounties, introduced diseases, and widespread habitat loss before 1936.
  • The newly verified mount contains the original skull confirmed via modern X-ray imaging a…: The newly verified mount contains the original skull confirmed via modern X-ray imaging and has now been added to the international database.
  • Severe regulatory limitations on trading historic animal remains have substantially heigh…: Severe regulatory limitations on trading historic animal remains have substantially heightened global market value for intact specimens.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

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. It is due to be sold at Auctioneum in Bath, where experts expect it to sell for between £30,000 and £50,000. 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. 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.

Discovery under a London bed

The family contacted Auctioneum after seeing news reports about the earlier thylacine sale. They brought in a wooden box that had been kept under a bed in their London home for years. The family had not known what was inside or how valuable it might be. Auction house staff gave the…

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