The Man Who Bought Stonehenge

On September 21, 1915, Cecil Chubb bought the English prehistoric monument Stonehenge for £6,600. An excerpt from the article:

"In 1915, Cecil Chubb went to an auction to buy some dining chairs but returned home with the ultimate impulse buy—Stonehenge.
Like most of the bargain-hunters who packed the Palace Theatre in Salisbury, England, on the afternoon of September 21, 1915, Cecil Chubb was looking for a deal. Legend says the wealthy 39-year-old lawyer had been dispatched by his wife to purchase a set of dining chairs, but that all changed when auctioneer Howard Frank announced lot number 15—“Stonehenge with about 30 acres, 2 rods, 37 perches of adjoining downland.”

It may be hard to imagine the world’s most famous prehistoric monument, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for sale to the highest bidder, but that’s what happened when the extensive estate of Sir Edmund Antrobus went under the gavel just months after his death a century ago. What may be even harder to imagine is that Frank found no eager buyers when he opened the bidding at £5,000."