The “Grail” of collectors. After two years of searching, a 13-year-old boy, Liutauras Cemolonskas, found a black Lego octopus on the beach in Marazion, a town in Cornwall, England. A rare piece from a container that fell into the sea during a storm in the 1990s.
Only 4,200 black octopuses
In 1997, twenty miles (around thirty kilometers) off the coast of Land’s End, the extreme southwest point of Great Britain, a freighter encountered a storm. Sixty-two containers fall from the ship, spilling nearly 5 million Lego pieces into the sea. Among which 352,000 pairs of fins, 97,500 diving tanks and 92,400 swords, but only 4,200 black octopuses, reports the Guardian. Rarer, the octopus is therefore very popular with collectors.
Cornish teenager Liutauras Cemolonskas has already found 789 pieces from this collection over the past two years. A passion that he shares with his father, Vytautas. “We have been looking for this octopus for two years, it is not easy to find,” the latter told local media. Next goal for the teenager? Get your hands on one of the 33,941 dragons that also disappeared during the storm.
“Lego Lost At Sea”
The sinking of these containers in 1997 aroused the curiosity of many collectors. Tracey Williams has been collecting Lego pieces brought to the beach by the tides and currents for years. His finds were even exhibited at the Royal Cornwall Museum in 2023.
She wrote a book on the subject, “Adrift: The Curious Tale of the Lego Lost at Sea” and launched the project “Lego Lost At Sea” on Facebook where she lists the latest discoveries.
As luck would have it, two days after the discovery of Liutauras Cemolonskas, another black octopus was discovered about ten kilometers away, on the beach at Porthleven in England.
“I think there’s something quite magical about octopuses. They are often considered the holy grail of finds from this shipping container,” the author told local media. She herself had found an octopus in 1997, but none since.