A 10th-century stone carving used for many years as a headstone to mark the grave of a British couple’s cat sold for £175 000 (about R1,95-million) at auction on Friday.
The stone had been found in a quarry years ago by Johnny Beeston, from Somerset, south-west United Kingdom.
He and his wife — who had no idea how much the limestone carving of St Peter was worth — decided it would make a fitting tombstone at the bottom of their garden for Winkle, the stray tabby cat they had adopted, after he died.
There it sat until it was spotted recently by a local amateur historian. Beeston had died last year, aged 79, and his wife decided to put the carving up for sale.
At Sotheby’s auction house in central London on Friday, the carving, showing a half-length figure of St Peter with his right hand clasped to his chest and two fingers raised in benediction, fetched £175 000.
The eventual cost to the unnamed purchaser, with commission, will be more than £200 000.
”The relief is made from Oolithic limestone and is incredibly rare, as few reliefs of this period have survived, time normally having worn the surface detail away,” said Alexander Cader from Sotheby’s. — Sapa-AFP