The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York houses the worlds oldest and complete collection of playing cards, The Cloisters. The colors of the playing cards are not the usual diamonds, hearts, clubs and spades we have today, but hunting horns and dog collars. , hunting rope and game lasso, the playing cards can be traced back to 1470 to 1480. Although it has been more than 500 years, the 52 cards are still in good condition, so some people speculate that this deck of playing cards Maybe it was originally meant for collection, not really used for playing cards or having fun.
The Cloisters actually has an interesting story behind it. An Amsterdam antique dealer bought this set of playing cards at an auction in Paris for US$2,800 in 1978. At that time, the auction claimed that The Cloisters could be traced back to around the 16th century. However, the antique dealer carefully studied the painting style of the playing cards. After looking at the clothing and hairstyle of the characters on the cards, I felt that the auction might have underestimated the age of the cards. So the antique dealer invited a medieval manuscript expert from Sothebys to conduct an appraisal and conduct a mineral test on the playing cards. Sure enough, it was discovered that the "true age" of the deck of playing cards should be even earlier! It was also because of the antique dealers carefulness and perseverance. Reluctant to part with it, the antique dealer resold the playing cards to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York five years later. The price was as high as US$143,000, making a huge profit of US$140,200.
This story is not to tell you that if you have nothing to do, you can go to antique shops or flea markets to find treasures. After all, the proportion of fakes bought for a lot of money in appraisal programs is much higher than the lucky cases of buying treasures cheaply. However, if there are Do more homework and enrich your background knowledge when you have time. Maybe one day when the treasure appears in front of you, at least you will be more willing to spend money and less anxious!
