Second thylacine head hits UK auction house after years stashed under bed
They say lightning never strikes twice, but a UK auction house is preparing to sell a second rare thylacine head — and this time, there's not a googly eye in sight.
Just weeks after a rare thylacine head mistakenly sold at auction for £62,000, a second taxidermied specimen of the extinct Tasmanian tiger has surfaced in the UK. The mounted head, nicknamed Trevor, had been kept under a bed in a London home. Auctioneer Andrew Stowe from Auctioneum said the family had stored the head out of sight as they were genuinely frightened of it.
The latest find comes with provenance, as the specimen was shot in Sheffield, Tasmania, sometime in the early 1900s and brought to the UK in 1905. Unlike the first specimen, this taxidermied thylacine appears to have been sculpted by someone who had seen the real animal, suggesting better craftsmanship. The find is the third-known mounted thylacine head in existence, with the last known thylacine dying in captivity in 1936. The taxidermied head will be offered at auction on November 26.
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