Sotheby's canceled the record £9.2m sale of a 12th century iron Kaaba key (originally sold in April of 2008) after the key's authenticity was disputed. Art historians at the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Oxford were consulted in the matter, their expertise eventually resulting the annulment of the sale.
The Art Newspaper reports that only 17 medieval Kaaba keys are known to exist (though there are 58 that exist total, from any period), and because of their extreme rarity, the likelihood that the Sotheby's key was a fake was extremely high. Indeed, there were many doubts regarding the key's authenticity leading up to the sale. The key was the most expensive Islamic work ever to be sold at auction.
Art history is sort of like detective work, isn't it? It gets especially exciting when 18 million hangs in the balance.
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That is amazing! I can't imagine being a collector of anything that valuable. Though I do love art. I just think I'd always feel guilty, like the money could've been better spent on something else. Imagine if someone discovered their artifact was a fake AFTER they dropped all that money on it?!
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