Rupert Grint bought a broken egg belonging to an extinct elephant bird.
The 27-year-old actor – who rose to fame playing Ron Weasley in the ‘Harry Potter’ film franchise – splashed out on the bizarre antique after he saw it on art dealer Gordon Watson’s show ‘The Four Rooms’.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, Gordon – who owns an antique shop in Chelsea – said: "I bought an egg – it’s called the elephant egg. It was from an extinct 3m tall bird featured in the film ‘Madagascar’. It was called the elephant bird and the 30cm egg still exists mainly but it was broken and pieced back together. I bought it for £3,800. ‘The Four Rooms’ programme was aired then the next day as we opened the shop at 11am there was Rupert standing there and a middle-aged guy, they came in and looked around and asked how much the egg was. Rupert looked at it, he negotiated – not that hard but we gave him a good price – and he bought it. I can’t say how much he paid but he handed over his credit card immediately. He said he’d seen me on (Channel 4 series) ‘Full Rooms’ and that’s why he came to the shop the next day – I’d never seen him before – the power of television."
Gordon, 62, has seen the likes of Madonna, Freddie Mercury and Rod Stewart walk through the doors of his shop in the affluent area of London but he believes Rupert is his youngest collector.
He explained: "It turns out that he’s one of my youngest collectors and he loves weird things and in a sense that’s continuing so that’s great, because normally the stars send in their agents so you don’t know who they’re buying for or their interior decorators, so it’s great to have someone young and enthusiastic."
Meanwhile, Gordon is currently hosting the new series ‘The Extraordinary Collectors’, which will air on BBC2, as he digs inside the treasures of some of the world’s most eclectic art collections to reveal the secrets behind good taste.
Rupert Grint owns extinct bird’s egg
