“Thought it was a tourist replica”: Woman buys vase in second-hand shop for five euros and is surprised

A woman buys a vase for just under five euros in a second-hand shop in the USA. It turns out to be a 2,000-year-old Mayan artifact.

Anna Lee from Washington, D.C., bought an “antique” vase for just $3.99 (about €4.72) at a local second-hand store, not realizing that she was holding a real piece of history in her hands. According to the New York Post, the supposedly kitschy decoration turned out to be a 2,000-year-old Mayan artifact that is now on display in a Mexican museum.

“I thought it looked old, but maybe 20 or 30 years old and some kind of tourist replica,” Anne Lee told WUSA-TV, as reported by The Independent. But during a business trip to Mexico, she noticed similar objects in an anthropological museum and decided to have her vase professionally examined.

About a month later, she learned that the supposed bargain was a ceremonial Mayan urn dating from between 200 and 800 AD – a priceless piece of jewelry, almost 2,000 years old, as “NYP” further reports.

“I’m thrilled to have been able to play a part in the story of his return,” Anne Lee is quoted as saying, admitting that she wanted to return the artifact to its rightful place, but also that she wanted to remove it from her home because she was afraid she might be the one to destroy it after 2,000 years.

The Maya were a Mesoamerican civilization known for their unique writing, impressive artwork, architectural achievements, and complex mathematics and astronomy. They emerged sometime around 2000 BC and flourished between 250 and 900 AD, a period known as the Classic Period of Maya civilization. Maya cities were spread across what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador.

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