The man who discovered a wonderful photograph of Billy the Kid playing croquet suggests he take a look about.
“I hope this inspires others to delve into trunks and attics in search of lost gems,” Randy Guijarro told the Guardian on Monday.
From 1878, a 45-inch-long portrait of Billy the Kid playing croquet.
A image of Billy the Kid playing croquet that was unearthed at a thrift store and was once only worth $2 has now sold for millions of dollars.
Guijarro paid $2 for three four-by-five-inch tintypes in a Fresno, California, antique store in 2010. Today, it is worth several millions of dollars.
The telecommunications specialist and his wife Linda have claimed that they want to utilize part of the funds generated by their unexpected discovery to fund other exploratory initiatives.
We could benefit from purchasing a new automobile.
We wish to look into neglected historical events both at home and abroad.
We adore traveling throughout the world together. The chase is an incredible spectacle.
Billy the Kid, a Wild West icon, was the man leaning on the mallet in the shot, and the other persons in the picture were members of his gang, the Regulators, playing croquet in New Mexico in 1878, he discovered after inspecting the photograph under a microscope at home.
Only the second authenticated photograph of the criminal has been taken, and it is valued at $5 million.
On Sunday, a National Geographic program hosted by Kevin Costner that recounted the five years of inquiry and investigation into its veracity aired.
It was simply incredible. “It was incredibly difficult for us to observe that,” Guijarro, 54, added. We hope you had a pleasant journey since we have been entirely transparent and honest with you.
He went on to add that the inquiry had been hampered by false leads and distrust, leaving the two anxious and unsure of whom to trust.
There are happy and sorrowful times. It had been a long and lonely voyage. The image looked like something out of The Twilight Zone. There is no doubt—this is too wonderful to be true.
The moniker “Billy the Kid” quickly conjures up thoughts of the Wild West and the legendary New Yorker who was shot by Pat Garrett, the sheriff of Lincoln County, at the age of 21 following a brutal but brief career as an outlaw.
Despite this, some historians believe he was only responsible for nine killings. The last existing portrait of him, which portrays him relaxing with a rifle about 1880, sold for $2.3 million (£1.5 million) in 2011.
Guijarro has spent the most of his life collecting numerous artifacts, such as coins, sports cards, comic books, and old pictures, alongside his wife, who shares his passion for collecting.
On his way home from work one late summer night in 2010, he came into Fulton’s Folly Antique Collective while roaming around Fresno’s Tower neighborhood.
Guijarro was told to approach two persons who, according to the vendor, were emptying a storage unit and trying to get rid of its contents while carrying “junk crates.”
He made a $2 recommendation and chose three photographs, some of which included croquet players and other historical settings. They took it by force.
Guijarro just barely recalls them. I can’t even recall who they were since everything has become so hazy.
The look of the croquet ball satisfied him, but it took him a week of meticulous scrutiny to identify the renowned thief.
The man’s clothes, manner, and the fact that he was standing on a croquet stick prompted the statement: “You could hand him a Winchester rifle.” Whoa, I thought, that’s Billy the Kid.
“A wonderful, smart woman,” he describes Linda, the Regulator appointed to probe the other Regulators.
She was able to communicate with two other croquet players, Charlie Bowdre and Tom O’Folliard, owing to the internet. “That was fantastic,” Guijarro said.
The remnants of a schoolhouse in Chavez County, New Mexico, were discovered thanks to the efforts of researchers, collectors, facial recognition specialists, and others. The image’s 18 subjects were all recognized.
The photo was revealed to have been shot just after a wedding in 1878, less than a month after the gang had engaged in the murderous Lincoln County feud.
Kagin’s Inc., a numismatics firm located in California, has insured it for $5 million and is now searching for a private buyer.
“We’re not counting our chickens before they hatch,” Guijarro remarked, despite the interest.
Following that, he and Linda intend to purchase a new vehicle, settle debt, assist a few close friends and family members, and begin arranging future treasure hunts.
He claims that they almost always sell the items they buy, proving that they are not hoarders. We need to go hunting because else, “we’d be sitting on a hundred acres of stuff else.”