Woman buys £35 'charity shop find of the century' but not everyone's impressed

Woman buys £35 'charity shop find of the century' but not everyone's impressed A charity shop customer who spent £35 at her local Cancer Research UK shop on what she believes is 2,000 year old relic has left others doubting whether her purchase is genuine A woman has insisted she's snapped up the charity shop "find of the century", though others have questioned whether her unusual purchase is authentic. While most second-hand treasures typically include designer clothes, premium kitchenware or vintage books and games, one shopper's discovery was entirely different. "Charity shop find of the century," she announced in a Reddit post accompanied by two images of her unusual item. "Spotted this in Cancer Research UK, the remaining piece of a Gladiator hand dated from around 200AD, originally found in a well in the Thermal Baths of Caracalla, Rome in the 1960s." The shopper continued: "The previous owner said that she wanted to declutter and by doing so needed to be rid of her c. 2,000 year old door stopper. A very heavy marble piece nonetheless!" The second photograph showed the woman had paid £35 for the Roman statue fragment. "I'm not sure about the authenticity but that's a cool story, I'm just not sure it's worth £35," confessed one Reddit user in the comments. To which the new owner acknowledged: "Agreed - worst case scenario I've made a £35 donation to a lovely charity. Best case scenario - a very old piece to the bookshelf!" However, a second person bluntly stated: "You bought a lump of marble with no provenance." While a third expressed their scepticism: "It's definitely not watertight, anyone could have wrote that note." And a fourth Reddit user questioned: "Who authenticated the thing? Anyone could attach a label with an odd description to anything." The charity shop customer subsequently returned to her post to clarify: "This is the thing, it's not been authenticated yet. But a strange story for someone to concoct to a charity shop for them to sell it for £35 quid after. "A piece of marble that size and weight is probably around that price anyway. Albeit - I will look to get this double checked as my curiosity has very much taken advantage of me here." A further Reddit user was more positive, however, musing: "The question is why would someone come up with something so specific, and for what purpose - ancient sculpture fragments aren't like Faberge Eggs - and even if they were, donating it to a charity shop with a random false story attached would be a weird thing to do." The purchaser concluded: "Agreed, as mentioned above the worst case scenario is that I've made a lovely contribution to a lovely charity. When finding out more on this when buying it, the shop manager knew the previous owner (who's a neighbour of the store) and mentioned she obtained this in the 60s when the city was conducting small-scale archaeological excavations at the Baths of Caracalla. "I find this too specific to just be some made up story in my opinion, my risk here is £35. I will actually get this looked at by antiquarian out of curiosity."