I am in awe of this story!
How does a 330 bc relic get handed from lay persons for 2,500 years without knowledge of worth. Only to be found years later in the perverbial storage box. I would love to know who's hands this relic has passed. It confounds the mind!

Judy DeMike, Chicago, IL , USA

"gold cup that has spent the past 60 years in a box under its owner’s bed"

The bed hadn't been moved for 60 years? Could this be a Guinness world record? This chap is on a roll. :-)

jayil, london, uk

A wonderful thing! Imagine how many things that must be out there, unknown to the world... I think I'm going to follow the advice given supra, and look under my bed...

Oscar, Stockholm, Sweden

What a beautiful piece.
I do hope it goes to a museum and not into private hands.

JA Spellman, Philadelphia, USA

If we type a few digits on a robotic machine which was designed to duplicate gold cups such as in this article, the machine would churn out hundreds of exact copies within hours. The cups would be made without imperfections. The value of this gold cup is purely based on its age not quality.

jayil, london, uk

Reminds me that I haven't cleaned under my bed for about that long too.

Andy, Melbourne, Australia

Bet it makes the beer go flat.

Udo, Melbourne, Australia

Diamonds removed from Africa and India have ended up in the West. So finding this cup here is not a supprise.

joe bloggs, london, uk

It astounds me something as ancient and precious as a Roman gold spoon is only valued at 10,000 pounds and a "Hellenistic" gold mount from the 2nd century BC would sell for as little as 2,000 pounds.People spend more on a night out on the poker machines in Australia.

HELEN, NSW, AUSTRALIA

Indeed, how *did* the cup turn up in Taunton, Somerset? No fault to Mr. Webber per se, but who sold it to his grandfather?

Wouldn't it be kind to turn it over to the national museum in Iran? Of course, walking away from a few hundred thousand pounds is difficult, but how cool would that be?

Julie Dole, LA, USA

Chris Coles, humans have come to a stage where human skills are not necessary, we let robotic computers do all the skilful work. The things we can create now would have been impossible back then. For example; they'd not be able to view the landscape of Mars 2,000 years ago.

jayil, london, uk

It takes a very wide variety of skills to create such a cup. It could be argued that today, here in the UK, these skills are not substantially available and that we are thus less developed than a civilisation more than 2,000 years older than our own. We need to re-create a true civilisation of skills

Chris Coles, Medstead, Alton, United Kingdom

While cleaning out our family home (we lived there for 200 years) on the east coast of India I found a lose flagstone in the old coach house which I moved with a crowbar and found a wooden box: it was full of empty wine bottles! One of my ancestors was a secret drunk!!!!!!

robert peterson, melbourne, australia

I hope that Mr. Webber enjoys the money he makes from the sale of his items. It's good to hear a good luck story after all the gloom and doom. Spend it and enjoy Mr. Webber!!

pauline horan, ashford kent,

Poor old Murray!

Well, she left you with your sense of humour intact-well done!

Thanks. Best laugh I've had today.

John, Woodbridge,

Jayil you have brought nothing to the discussion except cheap jibes on something completely unrelated, you doubt the professionalism of people who allow you to make those jibes, certainly you wouldn't be able to make them in certain places without a harsh crackdown.

Good luck for auction I say.

T.S. Hamilton, Chatham,

I looked under my bed, too, but the only two-faced woman I could find was in the bed.

Murray, Atlanta GA, USA

Jayil. It was not the soldiers who did the looting from Iraqi museums, but Iraqi's themselves. The US were guilty in not stopping the 'twenty thousand thieves' from doing the looting, but there is no evidence they too stole. Though, no doubt, you will have a conspiracy theory that says otherwise.

steve, watford, England

"Hold on a bit: I'm going to have a look under my bed!" -- Garth Rex, Glendale Heights, USA

Garth, don't look, all you'll find are "terrorists"...

Mr Bush warned ya!

jayil, london, uk

Hold on a bit: I'm going to have a look under my bed!

Garth Rex, Glendale Heights, USA

Couple of thousand years from now, relatives of British/US soldiers serving in Iraq war (2003) will find Iraqi antiquities under their beds which were "removed" from Iraq.

jayil, london, uk