Volunteer does the actual looking, finds £41K. As per usual
The committee has reviewed the Norwich file and identified, without surprise, the operative event: a volunteer did the work. Not the market, not the estate, not forty-six years of previous owners — Jemma Banks, unpaid, thumbed through a donated book PROPERLY, the way the committee has been recommending books be handled since books.
Entered into evidence: the object passed through an unknown number of hands since 1980. All of them held it. One of them looked. The one who looked was a local artist volunteering at a Salvation Army shop, and she immediately identified it, handled it with archival respect, and routed the proceeds — £41,160 — to the community. Flawless chain of custody from the moment a competent person touched it. The committee notes the pattern and files it with the other ten thousand instances.
The anonymous bidder is 'delighted'. Approved; anonymity with prompt payment is the committee's preferred form of man.
Jemma: promoted to Keeper of the Shelves, with the goose's full confidence, which as you know is not given twice. Everyone else: open the books before donating them. That is all. Dismissed.