Woman’s flea market find in Sweden sells for €124,000 and shocks auctioneers

A woman who bought an old metal torch at a flea market in Sweden has watched it sell for more than 1.4 million kronor (around €124,000). Auctioneers had only expected it to fetch about 25,000 kronor (€2,200), but it turned out to be an unfinished Olympic torch from 1956.

Auctioneers expected 25,000 kronor, not 1.4 million

The torch was made for the 1956 equestrian Olympics in Stockholm and went under the hammer at Stockholms Auktionsverk (Stockholm Auction House) in Helsingborg at the end of September, with the final price stunning even the auctioneers. 

Appraiser Staffan Milsten said his team understood early on that it was “a very special Olympic object”, but the bidding went “far beyond our expectations”. For the woman who sold it, he said, it’s “a rather improbable feeling” that something she bought at a flea market has now fetched more than 1.4 million kronor. 

It’s the highest price ever reached at the Helsingborg auction rooms, though neither the seller nor the buyer has been named. 

Most of us spotting an old metal wall lamp on a flea market stall would think ‘that’d look nice in the hall’ rather than ‘that could be worth a fortune’.

Why this torch is so rare 

It’s around 41 centimetres tall, weighs about half a kilo and is made of aluminium, and fewer than 10 examples are thought to survive.

This one was never used. According to the auction listing, it’s an unfinished piece with an unpolished head and no burner for the fuel, and at some point it had been converted into a wall lamp.

Why a horse-only Olympics ended up in Stockholm

The main 1956 Games were held in Melbourne, but Australia’s strict quarantine rules for imported horses meant the equestrian events took place in Stockholm that June.

The Olympic flame was lit in Greece on June 2, flown to Kastrup (Copenhagen’s airport) and on to Malmö, then carried to Stockholm by 150 riders over five days.

Where the torch goes now isn’t known, as the buyer hasn’t been named.