Monday, Nov. 9 marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. But what happened to all those colorfully decorated pieces of rubble?
Well, they were collected and are going to be on display worldwide in commemoration of this historic day. And, believe it or not, Ripley's Believe It or Not! -- famous for some pretty bizarre stuff -- owns the largest collection of pieces of the wall in the world.
But how?
Edward Meyer, VP of Exhibits for Ripley's, explains how the company came to possess this, let's face it -- random, artifact.
He said that he and his fellow Ripley's guys knew that what was happening was going to be historic when they were watching it on TV that day and they wanted to get in on the action. So they flew to Berlin and joined the mob in trying to get the best pieces of the crumbled wall that had been splitting Germany in half for almost 30 years.
"Buying it was easy," said Meyer. "Getting it home was the hard part."
The 16 sections that they ended up with weigh about two tons each and in total are 160 feet long. Let's just say transporting them back to the U.S. was a difficult -- and pricey -- endeavor.
But it all worked out, because today they are exhibited at Ripley's museums all over the world, including one in Atlantic City.
"We were there for one of the most historic events of the 20th century," said Meyer. "And our collection still serves as a living history lesson today."
