Million-dollar objects

Could you guess which Marilyn Monroe's object sold for $4.6 million?

Could you have a gold mine right in your own home and not know it? Everyone keeps a vintage concert ticket, a family heirloom, or some collectible tucked away in a drawer somewhere. But imagine finding out that what you think is clutter is actually worth thousands of dollars. A lock of Elvis Presley’s hair was auctioned for over $100,000, a violin from the Titanic brought in $1.7 million, and even a banana taped to a wall reached an astonishing $6.2 million. These unbelievable sales prove that when nostalgia, fame, and history come together, people will pay jaw-dropping money for the strangest objects imaginable.

You grew up listening to Elvis’ songs and watching his movies. You know from the highlights in his life to trivia details only true fans have. The man was larger than life, and so was his hair.

In November of 2002, a lock of Elvis’ hair sold at auction for a staggering $115,000. The hair had been carefully saved by his longtime barber, Homer Gilleland, who worked with Elvis for over 20 years and kept the trimmings in a plastic bag after giving him haircuts before television appearances and movie shoots. In order to prove its authenticity, Elvis’ associate Tom Morgan Jr. and memorabilia expert John Reznikoff both signed an authenticity certificate that backed the auction for which the anonymous avid fan paid thousands of dollars.

Few movie moments are more recognizable than Marilyn Monroe standing over a subway grate with her iconic white dress blowing up in The Seven Year Itch, the 1955 film_._ Marilyn was a representation of the golden age of movies, which is why items of hers were valued at such a high cost. And the white dress was, probably, the most expensive of them all.

The iconic ivory piece belonged to fellow actress, Singin’ in the Rain star, Debbie Reynolds. Funny enough, she had bought it directly from 20th Century Fox for only $200. Reynolds had spent decades gathering costumes and props from classic movies and hoped to open a dedicated museum. Her project was rejected five times by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and, due to personal debt, she had no other choice but to auction some pieces of her collection. Marilyn’s dress was one of those pieces and was auctioned in 1999 in Los Angeles for no less than $4.6 million dollars.

You’ve learned about the RMS Titanic tragedy growing up, and watched the tragic romance of Jack and Rose in the 1997 movie. More than a century after the sinking, people are still fascinated by this event, and for good reason, considering that we still hear fascinating stories about it.

In 2025, the gold pocket watch belonging to businessman Isidor Straus, co-owner of the Macy’s department stores, sold at auction for an astonishing $2.3 million, setting a new world record for Titanic memorabilia. The previous record had been set just a year earlier in 2024 by a Tiffany & Co. watch gifted to Captain Arthur Rostron of the RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued more than 700 survivors from the icy Atlantic. Three wealthy widows who survived the sinking presented him with the watch as a thank-you for his bravery.

The paintings hanging on your walls have been selected among thousands of pieces, only responding to your personal taste, and that’s because art is subjective. But when you hear that a banana taped to a wall was auctioned and brought in $6.2 million, the conversation takes a fun turn.

Comedian is a duct-taped banana piece of art created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan in 2019, which immediately became the most talked-about artwork in the world. In 2024, the artwork sold at Sotheby’s, New York, for an astonishing $6.2 million to cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, who later joked he planned to eat the banana himself. The buyer was really paying for a certificate of authenticity and instructions on how to replace the 35-cent-worth banana whenever it rotted. Modern art is not for everyone.

You probably still know the words to plenty of Beatles songs by heart. The Fab Four changed music, fashion, and pop culture forever, and fans have spent decades collecting anything connected to them. Old records, concert posters, sure. But few people expected one of John Lennon’s toilets to become part of history, too.

John Lennon lived in Berkshire, England, from 1969 to 1972, where he recorded part of the Imagine album. But that’s not the only highlight of the apartment. In there, there was also a porcelain toilet, which was handed to his contractor, John Hancock, after the house was remodeled. Instead of getting rid of it, he stored it in a shed for nearly 40 years, and, in 2010, after his death, the unusual piece went up for auction in Liverpool, during the annual Beatles Convention. Organizers were expecting it to sell for $1,300, but instead collected almost $13,000 from an unidentified private overseas investor.

Most people have old notebooks filled with recipes, reminders, or random thoughts. Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, instead, changed the way people understood science and nature. One of his most famous journals, the Codex Leicester, dates back to the early 1500s and contains da Vinci’s sketches and scientific observations. The pages explore everything from astronomy to the movement of water.

In 1994, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates purchased the manuscript at auction for a staggering $30.8 million, making it the most expensive book ever sold at the time. But it wasn’t for his private library. Gates loans the Codex to museums around the world so visitors can see da Vinci’s work up close.

The new millennium was defined by technology, pop style, and boy bands. Justin Timberlake was part of NSYNC, one of the most popular bands at the time, and fans followed him everywhere. In 2000, during an interview at New York radio station Z-100, Timberlake left behind a partially eaten French toast. Most people would have cleared the table, but one clever DJ saw an opportunity.

The leftover toast was auctioned on eBay, where a 19-year-old superfan from Wisconsin paid $1,025 to own it. Over the years, rumors claimed the toast sold for even more on a second auction, but the original auction price remains one of the strangest celebrity purchases ever recorded.

Most people remember Einstein as the wild-haired genius behind the theory of relativity, but one of his most valuable possessions was not a scientific formula at all. It was a simple handwritten note about happiness.

In 1922, while staying at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo during a lecture tour, Einstein received news that he had won the Nobel Prize in Physics. When a courier arrived at his room with a delivery, Einstein realized he had no cash for a tip. Instead, he handed the messenger two signed notes. One of them read: "A calm and humble life will bring more happiness than the pursuit of success and the constant restlessness that comes with it." Decades later, the message was sold at auction in Jerusalem for an astonishing $1.56 million. The note remained in the courier’s family before being sold by his nephew, proving Einstein’s prediction was right after all.

Chances are, your kids or grandkids have read the worldwide phenomenon, Harry Potter. From the very beginning, the wizard created by English writer J.K. Rowling became an obsession for millions of people around the world. But for Rowling, things weren’t so easy. She was a struggling writer, working on her stories in a small apartment with mismatched secondhand furniture.

One of those chairs, a worn wooden dining chair from the 1930s, became the place where she typed the first two books of the saga. She later painted messages directly onto the piece, including the line: "I wrote Harry Potter while sitting on this chair." Rowling first auctioned the chair in 2002 to raise money for charity; years later, it resurfaced again and was sold at auction in New York for $394,000. The sale included a personal letter from Rowling explaining that the chair was the comfiest she had at the time.

Secrets in plain view

The untold stories behind 15 of the world’s most famous artworks

Art is often more than just visually stunning; it can carry deep, hidden meanings and symbols that offer a richer experience when understood. From elements that tell part of the artwork’s story to deliberate messages and strange secrets, here are 15 famous artworks with hidden layers you might not have noticed before.

Though the Mona Lisa is perhaps the most famous painting in the world, the identity of the woman in the portrait has long been a subject of debate. Most scholars believe she is Lisa Gherardini, a Florentine woman married to a wealthy merchant, Francesco del Giocondo. However, numerous alternative ideas have emerged, including theories that the subject is an idealized figure or even a concealed self-portrait of Da Vinci.

Rodin’s famous sculpture, The Thinker, was originally conceived as part of a larger work but became iconic in its own right. Despite its fame, many curious facts about the sculpture are often overlooked. For example, its original name was actually The Poet, which supports the theory that the statue was meant to depict Dante.

Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus blends classical mythology with Renaissance ideals of beauty. Venus, standing on a shell, symbolizes divine beauty and spiritual rebirth. Curiously, some believe it was modeled after the long-lost Venus Anadyomene, a painting by the ancient Greek artist Apelles, known only through Roman author Pliny the Elder’s description.

Munch’s The Scream captures a moment of extreme emotional distress. The swirling sky, vivid in color, reflects the inner turmoil of the subject. While Munch claimed the inspiration came from a panic attack he experienced while walking, some argue that the red skies may have been inspired by the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, which caused vivid sunsets around the world.

In Raphael’s The School of Athens, ancient philosophers are depicted in conversation, but the placement of the figures is deliberate. Plato and Aristotle are centrally placed, with Plato pointing upwards, symbolizing his belief in ideal forms, while Aristotle’s gesture points horizontally, emphasizing his empirical approach.

The Statue of Liberty is not just a symbol of freedom; its design includes several symbolic elements. The broken chain at her feet represents the abolition of slavery, while the torch symbolizes enlightenment. But most curiously, Lady Liberty's face is said to have been modeled after the artist Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi's mother.

Da Vinci’s Last Supper holds numerous symbols, most notably the geometric composition. The table itself forms a triangle, symbolizing the Holy Trinity, while Christ’s position in the center divides the composition into a perfect balance of divine and human. Even the placement of Judas, isolated from the others on the opposite side of Christ, visually hints at his betrayal.

Grant Wood’s iconic American Gothic has often been interpreted as a commentary on rural American values, but there are more layers to the painting. In fact, it was inspired by a real house built in the style of "Carpenter Gothic," which Wood found rather pretentious for such a humble home. The characters, however, aren’t the real inhabitants of the house but Wood’s dentist and his sister.

The Venus de Milo represents idealized beauty in ancient Greek sculpture, but its missing arms add to its mystery. The lost limbs have sparked theories about its original pose, enhancing the statue's allure. Interestingly, some suggest the figure may not depict Aphrodite/Venus at all, but Amphitrite, the sea goddess worshiped on the island of Milos.

A master of visual storytelling, Rembrandt was well known for including hidden messages and symbolism. In his masterpiece The Night Watch, some believe the artist makes a subtle cameo. In the middle of the painting, behind a man in green and a guard with a metal helm, you can spot a faint figure, widely thought to be Rembrandt himself.

Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man is not just a study of human anatomy; it symbolizes the Renaissance belief in the harmony between art and science. But beyond the perfect proportions, keen observers have noted that the man depicted appears to suffer from an inguinal hernia—an ailment that could have been fatal at the time. Given that artists often used cadavers as models, it's likely that Leonardo based the figure on a real, deceased individual.

Klimt’s The Kiss is renowned for its use of gold leaf, evoking the sacred beauty of religious art found in churches. Some art historians even speculate that the lovers in the painting are not just symbolic figures, but a representation of Klimt himself and his long-time partner, fashion designer Emilie Flöge.

Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People uses the allegorical figure of Liberty to symbolize the spirit of revolution during France's July Revolution of 1830. However, the woman in the painting has a name—_Marianne_—a powerful symbol of the French Republic ever since the first French Revolution of 1789.

Van Gogh's Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear captures a deeply personal moment following the infamous incident in which he—allegedly—severed his own ear. However, some art historians now believe that the wound was in fact the product of an altercation with friend and fellow artist Paul Gauguin. A deft fencer, Gauguin might have acted in self-defense during a violent bout of psychosis of his friend.

Michelangelo’s David symbolizes strength and humanism, embodying both intellectual and physical power. While its proportions follow classical ideals, David’s unusually large head and oversized right hand stand out. Additionally, his heart-shaped pupils are a curious detail, possibly symbolizing his love for Florence or a playful nod to the letter "D," often depicted as a heart in Renaissance art.