Roman helmet sold for £2m

**Carados** · October 07, 2010, 09:39 AM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-11489189

Just thought I'd share ^__^

**JaNuZ99** · October 07, 2010, 12:46 PM

£2m!!! I wonder who has so much money they can do that.

and another thing, from the article it seems the museum was offering £150,000.. why would the anonymous bidder overbid so high

**Carados** · October 07, 2010, 01:24 PM

I've no idea.

The estimate was £300'000 so either it's a bogus bid - or this anonymous bidder really wants this helmet. There might also have been a couple of other people who were interested in acquiring the helmet, chances are the article won't mention them.

**Caesar Augustus** · October 07, 2010, 03:55 PM

Dang!

Still, if I win the £112m up for grabs on the Euromillions at the moment then I should be in with an outside chance

**Quinn Inuit** · October 07, 2010, 08:31 PM

That's a lot of money for a helmet. I could buy a whole foundry for that much and make my own ballistae.

**JaNuZ99** · October 07, 2010, 10:13 PM

Originally Posted by Carados

I've no idea.

The estimate was £300'000 so either it's a bogus bid - or this anonymous bidder really wants this helmet. There might also have been a couple of other people who were interested in acquiring the helmet, chances are the article won't mention them.

i'm leaning towards a bogus bid, after all, no matter how much you want something if you could easily outbid everyone else by going say 1m, why go to 2 Million. It make my head spin.

Originally Posted by Quinn Inuit

That's a lot of money for a helmet. I could buy a whole foundry for that much and make my own ballistae.

Oh man i could only imagine having a ballistae all to myself...

or better yet with 2million pounds i'd get me a panzar tank and storm France (muhahaha)

**Carados** · October 08, 2010, 06:22 AM

Originally Posted by JaNuZ99

i'm leaning towards a bogus bid, after all, no matter how much you want something if you could easily outbid everyone else by going say 1m, why go to 2 Million. It make my head spin.

Well I read in the paper today that there were 6 parties competing for the helmet. Apparently, the museum got their bid up to £1.7m!? Which doesn't make sense, unless they could pay in instalments?

Another thing it mentioned was that the helmet doesn't actually class as "treasure" in British law because it is made of bronze and not 50% or more Gold or Silver...

That's a lot of money for a helmet. I could buy a whole foundry for that much and make my own ballistae.

I'd buy an elephant or four and a gold plated chariot

**pannonian** · October 08, 2010, 07:14 AM

I think this was why the Roman empire fell. Prices for armour had risen to ridiculous levels, to the point where they couldn't equip more than a company of heavy infantry to cover the whole empire. £2m for a helmet, another £5m for a spatha. A legionary could cost upwards of £80m to equip and maintain.

**~~Tony83~~** · October 08, 2010, 10:32 AM

Lol - for a quarter of the price you could probably pop down the local Army Surplus and kit out an entire legion in Kevlar Segmenta!

**JaNuZ99** · October 08, 2010, 04:17 PM

Originally Posted by Carados

Well I read in the paper today that there were 6 parties competing for the helmet. Apparently, the museum got their bid up to £1.7m!? Which doesn't make sense, unless they could pay in instalments?

Another thing it mentioned was that the helmet doesn't actually class as "treasure" in British law because it is made of bronze and not 50% or more Gold or Silver...

i agree on that, i'd doubt the museum would go that high, but wait it doesn't even class a treasure!!

you know what the real shame is? It's that now it'll sit on someone's mantle, maybe getting dusty with whatever other relics the anonymous buyer has (of course this is assuming this is someone who has things just to have em, if he's a true collector of roman artifact he'll keep it nice and clean) and the world will never get to enjoy it.

**Sardaukar One** · October 08, 2010, 05:09 PM

What we value things for and what people with loads of money value things aren't the same.

Assuming the bidder is real of course, you might find that he would gladly pay 3 million for it. Or more.
They may think he is getting a steal at this price. Also, by coming in with what seems like a fantastic price, he might have avoided getting into a bidding war with someone else with loads of dosh. The knockout punch for lack of a better description.

A legionary could cost upwards of £80m to equip and maintain.

We aren't that away from it costing that much today. Of course, what do you expect to happen when you let Halliburton et al equip your military.