From the time it was posted on Tradera, the Swedish online auction platform, in mid-October to right before the auction was to end, no bids had been placed on the unusual Moomin mug titled "Swimming with seashells." With only a few minutes left, the first bid was made for SEK 175,000 ($20,400). A couple of minutes later, the "Swimming with seashells" mug sold for the record sum of SEK 236,478 ($27,500), making it the most expensive Moomin mug, which have become popular collector's items since 1990.
Related: Moomin Mugs: 30 Years of Collectibles
The Moomin mug Swimming with seashells is a prototype of the summer mug Swimming and therefore never went on sale. Swimming was released in 2006 and was Arabia's first summer mug. Swimming with seashells mugs were still made in small editions and then distributed to the staff at Arabia's factory. The motif is from Tove Jansson's series The Dangerous Winter from 1955.
