Rare Darwin book found in lavatory

LONDON – An auction house said it is selling a rare first edition of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” found in a family’s guest lavatory in southern England.

Christie’s auction house said Sunday the book – one of around 1,250 copies first printed in 1859 – had been on a toilet bookshelf at a family’s home in Oxford.

The book will be auctioned on Tuesday, the 150th anniversary of the publication of the famous work. Christie’s said the book is likely to sell for $99,000. Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” outlined his theory of natural selection, the foundation for the modern understanding of evolution.