NEW YORK: A painting that sold for $30 at an estate sale has fetched 45,000 times that at auction. It leads a week of odd but true stories from around the world, all reported by the news agency UPI.
The $30 masterpiece
A long-lost painting by the Chicago artist Gertrude Abercrombie sold for $1.35 million at Freeman's Auctions, UPI reported on October 2, after it was bought for $30 at an estate sale in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in July. The price far exceeded the auction house's estimate of $150,000 to $250,000 and made it the most expensive of the artist's works.
The 1951 painting, "Alderman Merriam's Shells", shows seashells from the collection of Robert Merriam, a Chicago alderman who represented the city's 5th Ward from 1947 to 1955. Experts found that it had been given to a Kalamazoo doctor, John Reynolds, in exchange for a medical procedure in 1952, and that it stayed with his family for about 75 years before a treasure hunter bought it.
Fifty tickets, fifty wins
A man from South Carolina's Lowcountry was so sure of his numbers that he bought 50 identical tickets for one Pick 4 drawing. His combination, 0-5-0-0, came up in the August 18 evening draw, and each ticket paid $5,000, a total of $250,000, UPI reported on October 5. "I felt lucky," he told lottery officials. He bought the tickets from several convenience stores in Summerville. "I probably won't play those numbers anymore," he said. "I'm not lucky enough for that to ever happen again."
A birthday across the world
The world's oldest and second-oldest men share a birthday, a year apart, and they marked it on October 5 by exchanging cards. Brazil's João Marinho Neto turned 114 and Australia's Ken Weeks turned 113; each sent a photo of himself holding a card for the other, UPI reported, citing LongeviQuest and Guinness World Records. Neto has been the oldest living man since November 2024 and is one of only nine men in history confirmed to have reached 114. "Because of the disparity in longevity between genders, it's rarer for a man to reach 114 than it is for a woman to reach 117," said Ben Meyers of LongeviQuest. The world's oldest woman, Ethel Caterham, turned 117 a couple of months earlier.
On fire, upside down
Filip Kržišnik, a 35-year-old Slovenian gymnast and film stunt coordinator, held a handstand for 47 seconds while his whole body was on fire, setting a Guinness World Record for the longest full-body-burn handstand, UPI reported on September 30. The attempt took place in Vienna in March. "I didn't manage to find a better solution to get warm," he said, adding that he would have been more fulfilled with 60 seconds.
Two thousand cans
A Hungarian collector, Gergő Borbély, has a Guinness World Record for the largest collection of energy drink cans: 2,000 of them, UPI reported on October 2. It began in a student dormitory in August 2008 with about 15 cans that "added some color to an otherwise rather plain dorm room". He has since travelled to Japan, the United States and across Europe for cans, including a Yugoslav-made guarana drink.
A raccoon at evening prayer
And in New York, a raccoon climbed the front steps of St. Joseph's Church on 6th Avenue during a candlelight prayer service on September 25 and walked in through the front door, before a pastor, Father Jonah Teller, showed it back outside, UPI reported. It ran off along the avenue, where a passer-by shouted: "I've never seen one of those in the city before!" The visit came a week before the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, which includes the blessing of the animals.
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