single night here at 8:00 p.m. eastern on fox at business, have a terrific weekend, i will see you monday. maria boucher mono starts right >> treasures stashed in the attic! >> they hadn't been touched for 40 years. that was like [gasps] shocking and exciting. [ camera shutter clicking ] >> history saved from the trash! >> she was a dumpster diver. >> she absolutely was. >> can these heirs cash in on their startling discovery? >> it's hard to believe that you had an ansel adams lining a drawer. >> and your reaction? >> "wow." [ chuckles ] [ camera shutter clicks ] >> but it's not so black and white. >> did you say to yourself, "uh-oh -- legally, maybe i can't do this?" >> i was concerned about that. >> will this photo finish... bring riches...or regrets? >> i was also feeling like, if i sold too many, then i would lose that part of my mother. [ door creaks ]

[ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] i'm jamie colby, and today i'm on staten island in new york city. so, picture this -- a packrat mom spends a lifetime stuffing her home. her kids wonder, "ma, when are you ever gonna get rid of all this stuff?" of course, she never does. and then a classic "strange inheritance" tale comes into sharp focus. >> my name is jaye smith. our mom, carol, had an expression -- "never forget to look in your attic." we thought she meant it metaphorically. now we know she meant it literally, as in, "there really is valuable stuff in our attic." >> hi, jaye. jaye, an executive coach, has invited me here to her mother's house. shall we? >> yeah. come on in.

>> thank you. in 2011, jaye's mother, carol, a retired editor of a photography magazine, dies at the age of 86. jaye and her brother, lee, inherit her home... along with the task of cleaning it out. and there is lots to clean. was mom a hoarder? >> [ laughing ] yes, she was. her motto was, you know, "waste not, want not." >> the most daunting challenge is the deceptively capacious attic. >> whoa! jaye... there's so much space in here! it's like a secret hiding place. it's cleared out now. not back then. lee, are we talking a hazmat situation? >> pretty close. >> paint a picture for me, jaye. >> well, when we came up it was overwhelming. it was just boxes and boxes and boxes -- broken lamps, several vacuum cleaners, old irons, you know, all kinds of crazy things. >> working through the heap,

they spy some curious items in a corner. >> and i thought, "oh, god. what's this?" >> what we saw was... piles and piles of envelopes... and tubes. >> lee and jaye open them up to find a mysterious assortment of photographs. >> they were kind of random -- different types of images, stills and biographical photographs. >> more than 1,500 of them! did you know immediately what these were? >> no, i didn't. some of them i knew that they were well-known people and they were probably shot for newspapers or magazines. >> unraveling the mystery demands a closer look at the career of jaye and lee's mom, carol carlisle. >> she had a great job. it was with popular photography magazine, and, at the end of her career, was the managing editor of the magazine, which was

unusual for women at that time. >> carol is also smack in the middle of the golden age of photography in the top magazines of the day, including life, look, and national geographic. outside of work, carol, a twice-divorced single mom, is just as passionate about photography. her two favorite subjects can attest. >> she was a very good photographer herself. she had a light meter that she carried with her everywhere. >> you ever get tired of her taking your picture? >> oh, yes. [ both laugh ] >> but is carol someone who literally brings her work home with her? what did you know about where mom found these or acquired them? >> well, i do recall as a child, growing up in this magazine office, in the back by the freight elevator, there were these huge canvas dumpsters. and they were filled to the brim

with photographs. so, i imagine her passing by them and, you know, looking across the top -- saying, "oh, that's attractive," "that's nice," and collecting them over a series of years. >> after carol's death in 2011, the photos just sit for several months. what you think you'd do with it? >> we really didn't know. >> but everything changes when jaye holds a garage sale to sell off some of her mother's stuff. >> just toward the end, a man came up, and he asked me if i had some cameras to sell, and i said, well, no, i didn't have cameras. >> but jaye does have mom's old photos. >> so i pulled out one. it was of a little old man with birdcages and doves. i showed him the photograph, and his eyes popped out of his head. he said, "may i take a picture of it?" and i looked suspiciously at him, and, "why?" >> he tells jaye he recognizes

the print as the work of henri cartier-bresson, considered the master of candid photography. and that old man with the birds? that's the renowned french painter henri matisse. >> he said, "i have a friend who worked with cartier-bresson, and he would know the value of the photograph." so i said, "oh, in that case, sure." i didn't have any expectations of it at all. it was curiosity, really. >> a few hours later, the man calls jaye back. what did he tell you? >> $12,000. >> $12,000 for one? >> "oh, wow." i was shocked. i was really shocked. then he said, "what else do you have?" >> what else did jaye and lee have? had they stumbled across a treasure trove? >> when i saw this, it was the most exquisite thing that i could possibly have hoped to find. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. where was this 1826 image --

the oldest surviving camera photo -- taken? the answer when we return.

♪another summer day is come and gone away♪ ♪in paris and rome but i want to go home♪ ♪oh i miss you, you know ♪let me go home ♪it will all be alright ♪i'll be home tonight ♪i'm comin back home >> so, where was the oldest surviving camera photo taken? the answer is...

titled "view from the window at le gras," the photo is of this estate and the surrounding countryside. >> in staten island, new york, jaye smith and her brother, lee, are piecing together their strange inheritance -- 1,500 rare and possibly very valuable photographs, found hidden in their mother, carol's, attic. >> they hadn't been touched for 40 years -- just stuffed in the corner. >> the siblings assume their mom saved the prints from the waste piles of the photography magazine where she worked for three decades. did you have any idea what they were worth? >> not a clue. >> but jaye and lee want to find out. they call in photo appraiser elizabeth eicholz from christie's to make sense of the snapshots. as elizabeth examines the collection, she is first pleasantly surprised, then amazed. look! there are those classic

shots of brigitte bardot... winston churchill... and ernest hemingway... hundreds of famous images by some of the most renowned photographers of the time -- richard avedon, ansel adams, cornell capa, and more. >> it was extraordinary in its vastness -- the number of photographs, the number of artists, the span of decades. >> and each individually hand-printed by one of those masters, using now-vanishing darkroom arts... selecting just the right contrast paper to expose under a carefully calibrated enlarger, lightening and darkening isolated areas with dodging and burning tools, dipping each sheet in developer and fixing solutions for exactly the right time at precisely the right temperature... and still not knowing what you've created until each has

drip-dried and the light comes on. those were the days of darkrooms. how much of a role does the quality of a print play in selling photography of that era? >> a photographer's negative can be compared to a composer's score, where the print is the performance, so that can give a sense for how important the physical print is. >> it makes it art. >> exactly. carol certainly knew that there was something more special to these than just pieces of paper. >> a few really stand out, like this nighttime manhattan cityscape taken by pioneering female photographer berenice abbott in 1932. >> this is one of abbott's most well known, if not her very most iconic, image. she had to wait until the shortest day of the year in order for the light to be just right.

when i saw this, it was the most exquisite thing that i could possibly have hoped to find. vintage examples are extremely rare. it's a diamond in the rough. >> that diamond in the rough could buy a gemstone from tiffany's. elizabeth appraises this single print for $20,000. bing, bing, bing, bing, bing! >> that was like [gasps] shocking and exciting. >> this image of two bullfight attendants was shot by candid photography pioneer henri cartier-bresson with one of the first fast, hand-held cameras that let photographers work in dangerous locations, like bullrings. >> this image definitely could stand up to the vintage examples that you would see in any of the museums today. >> the appraiser estimates this print at around 10 grand. she then selects 22 pictures she feels are the most marketable

for auction and values them at around 120k. and your reaction? >> "wow." [ chuckles ] >> but jaye and lee can't head to the auction block quite yet. while their mother may have had the prints in her possession, true ownership may lie elsewhere. how can jaye sell photos that she just happened to have the prints? don't the photographers own their own images? >> well, that's a good question, and it's one of that comes up time and time again. >> will their strange inheritance be someone else's gold mine? you go to all the work of uncovering and archiving, but there's a chance you don't own them, you can't do anything with them? that's next! >> here's another quiz question for you. why are 19th-century photos dominated by stony, solemn faces? were the subjects typically... uncomfortable from the hot

lights... self-conscious about their teeth... or mimicking painted portraits? the answer after the break.

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we created bionic and put the word out with godaddy. what will you change? make the world you want. >> so, why are 19th-century photos dominated by stony, solemn faces? the answer is "c." these early photos mimic traditional european portrait painting, where smiles were only worn by peasants, children, and drunks. >> a stash of original photographic prints in mom's attic -- the strange inheritance of jaye and lee smith -- may be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. but there's one big problem --

they may not be able to sell them. did you say to yourself, "i have 1,500 or more images, but uh-oh -- legally, maybe i can't do this"? what are the issues? do you own it? >> i was concerned about that, as some of them are very, very famous and well-known images. >> enter the lawyers for a nerve-wracking evaluation. ultimately, they conclude the photographers no longer own the physical prints. on what basis did the lawyer tell you you have legal ownership? >> "a," that i've had them for 40 years, but that all photographers who submit photographs to a publication do so with the expectation that it will not be returned. >> so you own the print. you don't own the image. >> correct. i do not own the image. >> but what about the magazine? shouldn't it own the photos, not carol carlisle's heirs?

again, the lawyers opine that once the magazine placed the photos in the trash, it surrendered its rights to the prints and jaye and lee can sell them. >> i think a lot of people in carol's position are probably kicking themselves, knowing what had sort of gone through their hands. what was somebody else's trash, at that point, was her treasure. >> she was a dumpster diver. >> she absolutely was, yeah. >> with their rights now clearly in focus, jaye and lee race their mother's photos to the auction block. in october 2013, an auction of 22 of the most valuable prints takes place at christie's in new york city, with the whole family in attendance. >> the photos are a smash hit. the shot of those bullfight attendants, appraised at 10k, brings in almost $30,000, while the portrait of matisse goes for a more-than-expected 18 grand.

and the berenice abbott cityscape, valued at $20,000, earns $90,000! in all, the group fetches 200k. it's a lot of money. >> it's a lot of money -- a lot of money for us as a family. it was a very wonderful, exciting evening for everybody. >> bit by the auction bug, the family's itching to sell off more of their strange inheritance. >> i felt like now i had a responsibility for the family to sort of keep things rolling along. >> but a second, smaller auction doesn't draw the same interest. two of the photos fail to sell, though a third brings in $4,400. >> even christie's was surprised. what they were worth and what they actually sell for is, of course, two different things, i've learned. >> maybe the family was rushing things so soon after their mother's death. >> it did start getting me to think about, "well, maybe i should slow down and stop this right now," and i was also

feeling like, if i sold too many, then i would lose that part of my mother, so keeping the images close to me and to the family felt more like keeping her around. so i just stopped everything for quite a while. >> with still more than 1,000 rare photographic prints, jaye and her brother, lee, trust their next step will present itself in time. and it does, after another discovery, this time in mom's hall closet. >> it sort of re-energized me about the whole thing. it was like another part of the treasure hunt, you know? "what is this, and what is it worth?" >> the answers, next. what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website -- strangeinheritance.com. one in three hundred and sixty-five african americans

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in their mother, carol's, attic in staten island, new york. they've sold some of the most valuable ones, and now they're having mixed feelings about the whole thing. >> i felt like i was losing her. it felt like they embodied her. if they were going out to strangers, what would be left? and so that memory of her was walking out the door. >> did you ever say to yourself, "maybe we're rushing?" >> i think it was, "let's take our time and let's back up and re-evaluate." >> but in early 2015, another discovery nudges them back into action. >> i was clearing out our hall closet, and there, tucked in the corner... >> was...? >> another envelope of photographs. inside, there were other celebrities, so a lot of well-known, recognizable people. i feel like, somehow, my mother is pointing us toward these things, like "don't forget this,

and don't forget that." >> or maybe their mom is saying, "don't forget...me!" so this time jaye signs up with a virtual cultural arts center called poba. the site features creative types who've died without full recognition of their talents or legacies, says managing partner jennifer cohen. >> we connect people with all the resources that they need to archive, to catalog, to preserve, to appraise, and sometimes even to sell and promote their work. >> over the next few months, the organization sorts through the prints carol rescued and curates them in a permanent online gallery. >> some of these photos are iconic. it really shows the entire range of great black-and-white photography over a very important period of time. >> including, from the hall-closet prints, this marilyn monroe... >> jumping quite high, actually.

>> it's a great, great photograph. >> it certainly seems like a happy and magical capturing of the '60s. >> ...a candid snapshot of pablo picasso... eating a fish, obviously, or, having eaten a fish. >> yes. all that's left are the bones. >> ...and another landscape by ansel adams. >> it's hard to believe that you had an ansel adams lining a drawer. >> yes. [ laughs ] >> have you given some thought as to what you'd like to keep, what you'd like to sell? >> i'm not just considering myself. it's my family's collection, as well. but i think the idea is to get them out into the world and let other people enjoy them. >> classic prints created by some the world's most innovative photographers, saved from a pile of trash by a sharp-eyed editor with a love of art who, for reasons of her own, leaves them for her kids to discover once she's gone.

you think mom was revealing something to you from the grave? >> i feel like i'm reliving her steps, you know, for those 30-something years that she was really entrenched and engrossed in photography. >> what was that old saying of carol's -- "never forget to look in the attic"? now her children are thinking, "maybe mom didn't mean it so literally, after all." >> the older i get, the more appreciative i am of what she did and who she was. [ camera shutter clicks ] you know, when carol first became interested in photography back in the 1950s, it was estimated that the whole world was taking about a billion photos a year. now it's more than a billion a day. i'm a lot like carol. i can't bear to see a snapshot go in the trash, but, fortunately, i don't have an overflowing attic -- just a seriously clogged hard drive.

i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for watching "strange inheritance," and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> an ancestor they knew nothing about... >> i went through 50-some-odd years of my life and had no clue. >> an inheritance they can hardly believe... >> what was your reaction as you opened those first boxes? >> it was mind-blowing. >> why does andrew green have george washington's will? >> bare-knuckle politics, cold-blooded murder, a legacy all but snuffed out... >> this was a cloud of suspicion of having lived a double life. >> what did they do? >> what are the chances that those boxes would've just been trashed? >> very good chance of that. >> what would you do? >> well, it drove me crazy. >> how 'bout 6,000? >> and what's it all worth? >> you think you'll ever get another auction with a story like this? >> no, i kinda doubt it.

[ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] >> i'm jamie colby. and today, i'm in kennebunkport, maine. it's renowned as the bush family's summer haven and also for its succulent lobster. but this story has a cast of characters that are up and down the atlantic seaboard. the heirs, they live here, a reclusive aunt from massachusetts and their gilded age ancestor once dubbed "the father of greater new york." >> i'm john green. >> and i'm lisa green buchanan. >> i think it's fair to say that our aunt julie was a hoarder. and when she died in 2009, she left us a mountain of stuff to sort through. >> oh, what a great house! >> thank you! welcome to kennebunkport! i got a story... >> john and his sister lisa belong to a new england family

whose history goes back to mayflower days but whose legacy had been largely forgotten. in 2005, that reclusive aunt i mentioned, julie green, is diagnosed with cancer, and john moves her from the boston area into a condo up here in maine, where the siblings can help care for her. it's a big job to be a caregiver. >> i never thought of it that way. she had nobody else. >> what was she like? >> she was single and independent. >> never married? >> no. >> no children? >> she did not want children. >> nor does aunt julie want anyone to get rid of all her stuff. >> even when we moved everything out of that house, we had a dumpster put in there, and she would guard the dumpster. she would make sure we wouldn't throw anything out. >> so the basement of julie's condo gets overwhelmed with stacks of boxes of books and who knows what else. john, what are the chances that, if you and your sister didn't care for aunt julie, that those boxes

would've just been trashed? >> very good chance of that. >> in her last years, the tight-lipped aunt julie does drop references to their ancestor she says accumulated much of it all. >> the only thing she would say is uncle andrew this, uncle andrew that. we'd tease her that she was living in the past. you know, you're talking about all these people that aren't here anymore, and little did we know why. >> aunt julie dies in 2009 at the age of 73. >> everything was left to my sister and myself. when we started opening boxes, we still didn't know exactly what we had at that time. >> first, they have to separate the wheat from the chaff. and there's plenty of chaff -- decades of old knickknacks, newspapers, mail, and clothing. how many boxes are we talking about? >> hundreds. >> among the boxes, lisa discovers this book which gives them a clue of what's to come. it's a family journal

going back to the 19th century. this is so cool! this is a caricature of andrew green, known as the father of greater new york. i'm from new york. i've never heard of him. did you know much about him before? >> no, we didn't. >> that's when i started to go down the rabbit hole. they learned that this guy, their great-great-great-uncle andrew green, was born in 1820 in an area known as green hill in worcester, massachusetts. >> he had 10 brothers and sisters. his father was a lawyer. they were well-off but not rich. >> 300 miles south of kennebunkport here in manhattan, historian mike miscione has pieced together the story of lisa and john's ancestor and how he left his mark here in the big apple. and while there's no skyscraper, highway, or airport named after him, it turns out there really ought to be. >> he was largely responsible for creating the institutions

that transformed new york into a world-class city. >> mike explains that, as a teenager, andrew green left massachusetts and moved to new york city. >> he worked as a clerk at a dry-goods operation, and, eventually, he decided to settle upon a career of law and came into contact with a up-and-coming lawyer by the name of samuel tilden. >> tilden is making a fortune representing railroads. he's also becoming a big shot in new york politics. >> green's dealings with tilden brought him into democratic political circles. and soon, he was involved in new york city civic affairs. >> green becomes tilden's law partner and begins making a hefty salary. instead of marriage and children, he's devoted to work. but when tough times befall his family up in massachusetts, andrew returns temporarily to worcester to take charge. >> he was able to not just

get the estate out of debt but make it prosper, as well. he became the patriarch of his family for the remainder of his life. >> great shot. is that the house? andrew figures the family home could use some extra rooms, 42 to be exact. one of those rooms is a museum showing off artifacts from the green family's history. >> there was a museum in the home for the family, not for the public. >> and how do you know that? >> this book is the story of the family and green hill. >> can i look? >> sure. >> so this is the story of the home 1754 to 1905. that's a lot of family history. >> mm-hmm. >> andrew's ready to make history himself back in new york by shaping it into a world-class metropolis. among other jobs, he heads the commission that creates central park. >> central park,

the metropolitan museum of art, the american museum of natural history. green would be largely responsible for creating the bronx zoo, the new york public library. >> there's very little green doesn't touch during new york's gilded age. in 1871, when city coffers are almost bankrupt, he becomes the city's comptroller. >> andrew green needed to be escorted by a ring of mounted policemen as he was approaching the comptroller's office on his first day of work. and this was a blood sport in this era. >> green exposes the shenanigans of new york's corrupt democratic machine, known as tammany hall, and helps send the city's notorious boss, william tweed, off to prison. oh, and one other little achievement... >> it was green's efforts to get new york to expand beyond the borders of manhattan island and to annex the municipalities around new york harbor, which included the city of brooklyn, and make that

all one giant metropolis. >> so how could his own family 100 years later not know all about him? could it have anything to do with the way green died? that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. in the presidential election of 1876, andrew green's law partner, samuel tilden, won the popular vote but lost to rutherford b. hayes. the answer after the break. as a struggling actor, i need all the breaks that i can get. at liberty butchemel... cut. liberty mu... line? cut. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance

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[voice of eunice kennedy shriver] the right to play on any playing field? you have earned it. the right to hold a job? you have earned it.

the right to study in any school? you have earned it. the days of separation and segregation are over. [cheering.] >> it's "a." among other problems, florida democrats printed ballots showing abraham lincoln's face in an effort to trick freed slaves who couldn't read into voting democratic. a special commission was set up to decide the contest, leading to the election of hayes over tilden. >> john green and his sister lisa green buchanan initially think their hoarder aunt julie has simply left them a big headache

when she dies in july 2009. but among the hundreds of boxes that filled her basement, they uncover a 19th-century journal that begins to open their eyes to the legacy of their great-great-great-uncle andrew haswell green, a man theodore roosevelt nicknamed "the father of greater new york." >> nobody told us the story. >> i went through 50-some-odd years of my life and had no clue how important he was. >> john comes to suspect that may be because of the scandal surrounding green's death in 1903. >> a man approached him and accused him of seeing his mistress and shot him in the back. [ woman screams ] >> the stranger -- his name was cornelius williams -- shot andrew green five times, killing the man instantly. he made no attempt to escape, made no attempt

to deny what he had done. >> the confessed killer claims green and a brothel owner named bessie davis were part of a conspiracy against him. newspapers across the country relish the salacious story. >> this was a very troubling, mysterious set of circumstances, and andrew green was under this cloud of suspicion of having lived a double life. >> the police determine green was a victim of mistaken identity. or was it payback from the political machine that he had taken down? whatever the case, the damage to his once-spotless reputation is done. plans to erect memorial gates in his honor at the entrance to central park evaporate. in worcester, green's mansion is sold to the city and later demolished. gradually, even his own kin forget all he accomplished and left behind, the effects of an important man boxed up in cardboard.

>> they cleaned the mansion out. and my grandfather's father took possession of all these items, and then it went to my grandfather. they were passed on to julie. >> and why julie? >> she took care of my grandparents when they got elderly. when my grandparents moved into assisted living, julie was the one that took 'em. >> and because john and lisa take care of aunt julie in her dotage, she leaves them this strange inheritance. what was your reaction as you opened those first boxes? >> it was mind-blowing, really exciting. >> there's china, tiffany silverware, coins, stamps, antique books, clothing, toys, and jewelry. and how many items are we talking about? >> thousands. >> so after tossing aunt julie's actual junk, including decades of old newspapers and mail, they reach out to richard oliver, a family friend and local auctioneer. >> we knew there was enough value to get historians and people

like richard involved. i mean, my brother and i couldn't have settled this estate by ourselves. >> indeed, richard will need an entire team to go through all those boxes and catalog everything. >> i said, "listen. john, you pay the expenses. i'll keep the buyer's premium." >> do all your clients pay up front? >> well, a good part of the time, we take 20% or whatever it might be, and we pay the expenses. >> john agrees but quickly learns he's taken a huge risk. research gets expensive. take this antique hebrew prayer book from andrew green's massive library. to find out where it came from, richard must run an ad in an antiques magazine. >> somebody picked up on it, and i started getting calls from israel and calls from all over the country. >> another example -- this silver cup with a wolf's-head crest. >> it drove me crazy. i wasn't able to find out what the crest was.

>> after much effort, historian bill ralph, a member of the research team, figures out it was from a group called wolf's head. sounds like a secret society. >> and it -- in fact, it is, and it was. it was the third secret society at yale. >> fascinating stuff. but can the siblings expect a return on that kind of research? did you ever say to richard, "i got your latest bill, and we're not gonna do any more research until we sell some of this stuff"? >> i didn't put it like that, but i questioned him. "are you sure we're discovering enough things of importance to pay this bill?" and, richard being richard, "oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. don't worry about it." >> i told john i had calculated we ought to be able to do $600,000 without a problem. >> that's because his team has found plenty. check out these letters apparently given to andrew green as a gift, penned by thomas jefferson, james madison, and james monroe. >> they were... >> originals?

>> yes. >> what were the letters about? >> my favorite letter, james monroe and james madison were talking about this gentleman who happened to be andrew jackson. they were afraid that he might be the ruination of their careful plans to carry on their ideology with the american public. >> the next big find? this rare copy of george washington's last will and testament, printed in 1800, right after washington's death. >> at the time, we knew there were only 13 existing copies. >> make that 14. >> it was in a plastic bag filled with other things, and it very well could've been thrown out without anybody ever knowing about it. >> by july 2010, john and lisa's strange inheritance is cataloged and ready for sale. they've invested a year and a lot of money in it. how much had john spent getting ready for this big auction? >> it was around $225,000.

>> whoa! >> i hope we get enough out of this to pay for what we've discovered. >> will they? >> sold at $1,000. >> that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. when andrew green was new york city's comptroller, the brooklyn bridge was partially financed by renting what? apartments atop its towers, boat slips by its piers, or wine cellars at its base? the answer in a moment.

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some people say that's ridiculous. age is just an illusion. how you show up for the world, that's what's real. what's your idea? i put it out there with a godaddy website. >> it's "c," renting wine cellars at the base of the bridge. the granite-enclosed spaces maintained a 60-degree temperature even in hot summer months.

>> it's september 2010, and john green and his sister lisa are preparing to auction off thousands of items they inherited from their aunt julie. many belonged to their great-great-great-uncle andrew green, the long-forgotten father of new york city. they decide everything must go -- well, almost everything. >> these are dueling pistols. when you had to settle a score back in the 1700s, these are the dueling pistols that you used and the powder flask that goes with it. >> now, why would you keep these? >> i'm a gun nut. so i thought it was kinda cool to have dueling pistols. >> the stakes for the auction are high. to appraise and catalog the collection, the greens have spent $225,000. >> every box was another -- you never knew what you were gonna get into. >> the big question now -- will the auction bring in the money they need to break even? >> here we are.

we've extended a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of resources just to get to this far. >> was it important for you to recover enough from the auction to cover your expenses? >> very important. >> lot number 22. let's start with... and how much? and get bidding where? >> john frets as auctioneer richard oliver unloads antique toys, dolls, and music boxes for just a few hundred dollars apiece. >> it was a slow start, like, "oh, boy. is this gonna come into it?" >> next on the auction block, that silver cup that bill ralph finally determined was from a yale secret society. even that only fetches 1,000 bucks. they're a long way from the 225,000k john and lisa paid up front to get their strange inheritance ready for auction and a far cry from the minimum of $600,000 the auctioneer predicted. and then, with one surprising bid, everything starts turning green! >> none

of us thought it was gonna go for what it went for. >> that's next. what's your strange inheritance story? we'd love to tell it! send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. these are the moments that brings us to our feet.

the anticipation. the 15 seconds of fame. the big catch. but the most important moment, happens when we all stand together. join us as we stand up to show our support for loved ones affected by cancer. visit standuptocancer.org/mlb stand up with us.

>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> it's september 2010, and john green and his sister lisa green buchanan are wondering if they're going to be able to cover the $225,000 they've spent preparing their strange inheritance for auction. >> uh, we had to pay for this somehow. >> at first, the sale moves slowly and ekes out only a few thousand dollars, nowhere near what they need. what was the moment at which it picked up? >> one of the most exciting was the small hebrew book that they found. none of us thought it was gonna go for what it went for. the rare 17th century hebrew prayer book, a gem from andrew green's vast book collection?

>> $33,000. >> that copy of george washington's last will and testament? $16,000. a single letter from thomas jefferson to president monroe? 13k. all of the presidential letters together -- just under 70 grand. 9 booklets from 19th-century india fetch 11k. a cherry tea table? $9,000. this windsor high chair goes for $11,500. the sales just keep ringing up. the final tally at auction's end -- $700,000. so were you pleased or disappointed? >> oh, very pleased. the things in that auction needed to go to people who cared for them so the general public could see it. >> in fact, the new york public library buys a bundle of letters written by green himself for only 500 bucks, a bargain for the guy who helped create the library in the first place. >> if it wasn't for him, who knows what central park would be? he brought the five boroughs

of new york together to make one city. this is a lot of history. >> we told you how john kept those dueling pistols. john's sister lisa keeps something, too -- that dusty old journal that reconnected her to the green family legacy. >> i learned a lot while we were going through this process. it's pretty astounding, and there's no way to deny where i came from anymore, the more i learned. >> in 2012, new york city finally got around to funding a small andrew green park here along the east river for $5 million. but then the city realized that the pilings along the river would need repairs, costing another 15 million. so for now, andrew green has a dog run and a beautiful view to honor him. and his story, which was in storage for more than 100 years, is finally out of the box.

i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching, and remember -- you can't take it with you. ♪ >> in a wild west ghost town... a teenager stumbles upon a dilapidated gold mine... and its owner. >> she had a "no trespassing" sign at the gate. >> does she say, "i'm calling the cops," or does she pull an "annie get your gun"? >> it's the start of an uncommon relationship. >> i'm thinking, "you're a smooth operator." >> no, it was just the history i was interested in. >> next thing her family knows, the guy's getting their strange inheritance. >> i said, "i certainly hope you're on the up-and-up." >> but is this old mine spent? >> ruth, i got a lot of respect for you now. >> or could it still make him rich? >> there's still gold here. >> this is by far the hottest result that i've ever worked wi