Thousands Of Dollars In Artifacts Found In NY Trash

NEW YORK (AP) -- One man's trash is definitely another man's treasure.

A Queens man hired to remove material from a deceased artist's estate has found artifacts worth thousands of dollars in a discarded barrel.

Nick Dimola was hired in 2004 to take away unwanted material from the home and work spaces of artist Clinton Hill. Hill died in 2003. Among the material put out as trash was a cardboard barrel. DiMola removed it, and stored it in a warehouse for several years.

He recently opened the barrel to find some Mexican artifacts inside. The artifacts date back to anywhere from 300 B.C. to 500 A.D. They're estimated to be worth more than $16,000.

Get HuffPost New York On Facebook and Twitter!

Comments

[ramblingjohnny]

And he just happen to never open it until now! lolll Seriously am not buying it if I store a box for years you can be damn sure am opening it at least once to make sure their nothing illegal or valuable! Am guessing he sit on this discovery until he could get good legal advice on how to handle it.

[Henk]

As a kid I worked for a guy who cleaned out repossessed properties for banks and HUD. Things he thought might be worth something were stored in a shed at his house. Stuff sat for years and years before he got around to looking at it. So for me its not that hard to believe some one let something sit that long.

[ramblingjohnny]

I know procrastination is a universal law like relativity and gravity but this is pushing it far and am guilty of it like the next man but even I would have at least open it once out of curiosity! The fact that this guy spend the money and the space to store this stuff make me suspicious. It not a farmer with a shed this dude in New-York where storage space is not cheap!

[Billpoch]

Great story for the Antique roadshow.

[bigsexyshaq]

Hey! The trashman stole my artwork!

[J Q]

Well, they're going to have to check out if there are any export / customs violations. Contrary to popular belief "Finders Keepers" is a myth - especially when antiquities are involved.