Mummified cat found in Transylvania up for auction in Staffordshire

The cat is set to be sold at Hansons Auctioneers’ Library Auction in Staffordshire on October 13 with a guide price of between £800 and £1,200.

The find was made by 40-year-old artist Valentin in his late grandmother’s house in Bistrita, the capital city of Bistrita-Nasaud County, in northern Transylvania, Romania.

In Stoker’s Dracula, published in 1897, Bistrita is Jonathan Harker’s first stopover before going to Count Dracula’s castle.

Jim Spencer, head of Hansons’ Library Auction, said: “Dried or mummified bodies of cats are often found concealed within structures in the British Isles, northern Europe and North America.

“It was customary to place the dried body of a cat inside the walls of a newly-built home to ward off evil spirits or as a good luck charm.

"Cats were known to sense ghosts and other supernatural beings, and dried cats were sometimes placed in locations deemed vulnerable to witches entering the house, in this case the cellar.

"With Halloween nearly upon us, this has to be the ultimate quirky and rather spooky find.”

Valentin, from Berlin, Germany, added: “My brother Adrian and I found the cat in the wall of my grandma’s house, which was built in 1921.

"We were cleaning the cellar when we noticed a crack in the wall and decided to loosen the bricks to see what was behind it.

"We thought we might find a hidden room or compartment.

"As I removed some of the bricks, I noticed something that looked like a miniature head of an animal.

"My first thought, after removing more bricks and seeing the entire body, was that it might be a miniature sculpture of a tiger.”