Hidden Treasures | How we got into buying and selling arts and antiques

Getting creative to gain some money

Several years ago we were left without any income, so we had to find ways to provide ourselves with food. I got very creative during that time in our lives and one of the things that we made some cash with, was selling arts. We were looking for valuable items in the house that we didn't need anymore, and could possible be sold for a nice price. The first thing we found was a painting at the attic. It was an old painting, owned by his parents when they were still alive. He decided to look into the artist and this is actually where our art adventure began. Let me take you with me to see how we were looking for hidden treasures constantly to make some money.

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We started to love hunting for hidden treasures

While going to flea markets and several second hand shops, we did not focus on finding on specific thing, but we looked in every possible section. Both having a good eye for detail, we usually got back home with at least one thing, but most of the times we would take home several items. And as we bought them on flea markets or in the cheap second hand shops, we only had to spend a few euros in total. As soon as we got home, we went online to find more information about every piece, somethings took weeks to find more information about. We never gave up though, and as we both liked searching different things, we could spread the work and look for two items at the same time. While we seeked answers about the piece to find out if it was rare, or maybe antique, we have learned a lot about antiques and chinese and japanese arts. At a certain point I found a whole bunch of cups that we thought were so detailed, we could not leave them. We found out these were Japanese ceramics from the Satsuma era. After a while we even found the most detailed miniature vases, see the three pictures below.

	Satsuma Miniature Vases
	Satsuma Miniature Vases side
	Satsuma Miniature Vases bottom

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Sometimes we took home jewelry

After my boyfriend had found a beautiful detailed ivory bracelet for only 2 euros, we found out that we could sell this with great profit if we would put it up for auction online. So we did, we made pictures of it, and it was sold for almost €150 ! That's a huge profit after buying it for only € 2. In the jewelry auction we noticed that there was a great interest in shells, and mineral beads. So we started to look for them, as they seem to be the "forgotten" hidden gems in those second hand stores quite often. One of the things that we found was the shell of pearl necklace below. I added all three pictures (front, detail and back) in this post.

	Shells of pearl necklace
	Shells of pearl necklace detail
	Shells of pearl necklace back

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Sometimes we found something special

While we already knew that there was great demand for jade statues of all kinds, we also saw many sells at online auction containing jade disks on a stand. When my boyfriend found this jade disk on a stand, he was kind of ecstatic to find one of these. And I must say it was a nice piece of decoration.

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I still enjoy looking at the pictures of all the hidden treasures we found

We may not be professional photographers, but I am quite proud of many of the pictures we both made of our collected arts. And thinking back of that time still give me an overall happy feeling of excitement, because due to our focus on finding arts to sell, we got through the stressful events that occured at the same time. Not only did this treasure hunting provide us with some extra cash that we desperately needed, but we learned so much during our time searching for more information. This was a great example of self-study. We both gained a lot of interest for arts, and at the same time we studied for hours and hours to learn all we could. Actually I am still quite proud of the results we booked at the time with selling in online auctions, we had several successful sells. While some people defined this newfound interest for arts as "vague art plans to make some money" we can actually say we proved them wrong by having some successful sells.

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Budapest is filled with hidden treasures

Arriving in Budapest last fall, was like arriving in heaven at first. We stayed at one of my boyfriends colleagues, who lived in the street that has numerous of antique shops. So everytime I walked outside I was happy like a little child to finally see the real deal of some antique ceramics. Actually we also had the joy to have some real rare and old chinese ceramics in our hands while being in Seville (Spain) but here in Budapest we usually see other antiques. To be able to see them and hold them, instead of looking at the pictures online is such an exciting feeling. Once we have the possibility we will go treasure hunting on the flea markets here for sure. I would love to pick up where we left in Holland, to find the gems and sell them online.

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I hope you liked reading about how we got interested in buying and selling arts and antiques. Maybe I will share more of this in the future, as we have plenty of pictures from this period. Too bad we had to leave all the arts behind when leaving Holland, but the pictures will keep the memories alive.