The head of an extinct Tasmanian tiger sells for 50,000 pounds after being bought for only 50 pounds

After an unknown person bought it for a small amount not exceeding 50 pounds sterling from an antiques market in the British West Country, because of the funny bulging eyes attached to it, he was surprised that it belonged to the extinct Tasmanian tiger (Thylacine).

The head, which was described as "one of the most important specimens sold in recent years," sparked a fierce bidding wave last week at the Auctioneum auction house in Bristol, which ended with it being sold for 50,000 pounds sterling, a thousand times its original purchase price.

Andrew Stowe, the auctioneer, revealed the seller’s astonishment, saying: “When we told him the amount, I thought he would faint, so I offered him a chair to sit.”

As for the winning bidder, James Cranfield, who paid an additional 10,000 in fees, he said that he suspected that the head was not that of a fox since he saw it in the catalogue, so he went to examine it himself, stressing that it is “the only head of this extinct species currently found in the world.”

It is noteworthy that the thylacine, a marsupial that lived in Australia and Tasmania, became officially extinct in 1936 with the death of the last known individual at the Hobart Zoo.

The auction house confirms that complete and mummified specimens of this animal are almost non-existent outside major international museums, making this head a unique masterpiece sought after by scholars and collectors alike.