In the past year, America has been rocked by surprise endings— Brexit, the Academy Awards Oscars mix-up, the overtimecomeback win of the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 51, and thehistoric presidential election of the mostunlikely candidate.

These anomalous events were considered unusual and unforeseen.At times, it can seem like the world of insurance claims.

While your typical adjuster is all-too-familiar with thestandard fare in property claims, your rugs, roofs and couches,once in a while they come across specialty items that are eitherone-of-a-kind pieces or extraordinarily rare. In short, unusual andunforeseen.

Here are the top five exotic claims Enservio specialists coveredand how they were handled:

A glass shelf broke in a home owned by a Hollywood filmlegend under the weight of his 20-plus acting awards. (Photo:Shutterstock)

1. What price, an Oscar award?

That was the question one claims appraiser had to answer when aglass shelf broke in a home owned by a Hollywood film legend underthe weight of his 20-plus acting awards, including a gold-platedOscar, a BAMBI, and multiple BAFTAs (the international equivalent of theOscar from Germany and Great Britain, respectively).

Work on the assessment project involved reaching out to anetwork of art and object conservation specialists worldwide todetermine which items could be salvaged and which ones wereunrepairable. Contents experts also contacted the various awardingagencies and original global manufacturers to help determine thetotal loss.

Related: Contents claims solved: The case of the Juddstatute

In the end, the restorable awards were returned to the insuredwithout any evidence of their prior damage and exact replacementswere secured for those awards that could not be repaired.

You never know what is coming your way when you're a claimsadjuster. (Photo: Shutterstock)

2. The stolen gorilla mount

The words “silverback full body-sized gorilla mount, 7 feet inheight” are not ones claim adjusters come across often, but theydid in one noteworthy case.

Related: Contents claims solved: The case of the stolengorilla mount

The first step in this unusual claim was to determine the legalstatus of the product itself. There are, in fact, strict conditionson the sale of any product involving animals that are endangeredlike gorillas. To be legal, the mount would require documentedimportation prior to a specific date and would consequently be veryrare and valuable.

This point was rendered moot, however, when contents expertswere presented with photos of the item and determined the item wasa life-sized prop, a costume gorilla suit mounted on a form, not anactual taxidermal gorilla. While a legal salable gorilla mountwould have a value in the $25,000 to $45,000 range, this gorillaprop had a retail value of about $6,900.

A 19th century Sioux warrior was damaged in a botchedmoving operation. (Photo: Shutterstock)

3. The damaged Sioux warrior statue

Contents claims specialists were called to the scene when alife-size bronze sculpture of a 19th century Sioux warrior wasdamaged in a botched moving operation. The insured sought $100,000to pay for a total replacement of the item.

Related: Determining value is a fine art

During the on-site inspection, the team noted the good conditionof the piece, photographed it extensively, and determined thedamage was largely confined to the broken stone pedestal. The artspecialist recognized the work and contacted the artist to discussthe damage. The artist agreed that the work's artistic integritywould not be compromised by replacing the damaged stone base.

Based on this and a consultation with the original designer ofthe stone base, the specialists recommended a replacement be builtby the original stonemason for $4,300.

Not all antique guns are collectibles. (Photo:Shutterstock)

4. The missing tranquilizer gun

Assessing a rare item becomes much more challenging if it alsolacks photos or documentation, as it did in a case involving ananimal tranquilizer gun allegedly manufactured in the late 1950s.The insured also claimed the dart-shooting gun was in high demandamong collectors and estimated the value of $4,500-$5,000.

Related: Establishing the real value of guns andammo

The adjuster, who knew little about the collectibles market forwild animal-control tranquilizer guns, called upon contents claimspecialists, Enservio Select, for help. Working offinformation from the policyholder that the item was a carbondioxide-powered handgun with a brand name that the owner recalledincluded the word “capture,” contents specialists determined theitem was a Cap-Chur Animal Tranquilizer Gun manufacturedby Palmer Cap-Chur Equipment, Inc. in Douglasville, Ga.

Further investigation by the claims specialist revealed that acollector market for antique wild animal-control tranquilizer gunsis non-existent. Obtaining darts for use in this particular gunrequired a veterinarian license, which tranquilized any secondarymarket value. Given the appraisal, a retail replacement for the gunof like, kind and quality was found to have a maximum value of$443.

A waxwork of Pablo Picasso on display at Madame Tussauds onOctober 28, 2015 in Bangkok, Thailand. (Photo:Shutterstock)

5. The case of the Picasso etching

It's a big deal any time a claim involves Picasso and so it waswith a print with a claimed value of $12,000. According to theappraisal, the piece was by Pablo Picasso from the Vollard Suite,dated March 25, 1933, edition 186/340, and titled JeuneSculpteur Finissant un Platre.

Enservio specialists recognized Picasso's works from the Vollardsuite were one of his most popular and reproduced series. Becauseof this, care had to be taken in the appraisal as many reproductionlithographs are known to exist.

One identifying characteristic in the original Picasso Vollardetchings is that they all have watermarks, yet there was no mentionof such in the previous appraisal. Casting further doubt on theitem's authenticity when photos were examined, was the lack of aplate mark impression on the print, indicating it may not be anoriginal etching.

Based on this information as well as an incorrect editionnumber, it was determined the item was an “after” Picassoreproduction lithograph with a value no greater than $100,significantly less than the $12,000 claimed.

Related: Determining the value of unsoldartwork

Joel Makhluf is a vice president at Enservio, a providerof contents claim management software, inventory and valuationservices and payments solutions for property insurers. Contact himat [email protected].