In Finland and Sweden, they sit in almost every kitchen cupboard: white mugs decorated with Moomin characters, used every morning for coffee. For three decades, one artist drew them. Today, some of these mugs sell for thousands at auction, and one rare test version just fetched about $52,000.
The artist behind the mugs
The Moomin mugs are made by Arabia, the Finnish ceramics brand. According to Wikipedia, the current series was introduced in 1990 on the Teema shape designed by Kaj Franck, with images based on the original drawings of Tove Jansson and Lars Jansson.
For more than 30 years, the person who brought those drawings to the mugs was artist Tove Slotte. She worked on Moomin by Arabia products from the early 1990s and designed more than 100 mugs before retiring at the end of 2022, according to Rights & Brands. A new design team, Annika Tickle and Parvati Pillai, took over.
Why collectors pay so much
Every year, three to five new mugs come out, including limited summer and Christmas editions, and many are discontinued after their season. That’s what drives the market: a mug bought new in a store can become hard to find a few years later.
The most valuable are the limited editions made for specific places, such as the Fazer café or the Stockmann department store in Helsinki. A 2004 Fazer special mug sold for more than 26,000 Swedish kronor, about $4,000, at an online auction in 2012. In 2021, a test mug set a new record at 236,478 kronor, about $27,500 at the time.
The $52,000 test mug
The latest record is even more striking. A “Diving with Shells” mug, a test version of the 2006 summer mug with extra shells and coral that never went into production, sold for $52,000 at a private auction in Finland. Only about ten are believed to have been made, reportedly given to Arabia factory employees. The sale was completed in April 2026 and made public in September by Finnish dealer Muumimukit rahaksi, as reported by Euro Weekly News.
Is your mug worth a fortune?
Probably not, and that’s the honest part. According to the Swedish magazine Femina, common models usually change hands for a few thousand kronor secondhand, a few hundred dollars. What makes a mug valuable is a combination of factors: a limited or regional edition, a test piece, a design discontinued long ago, and perfect condition, with no chips. Before selling, compare sold prices on auction sites, not asking prices.
The limit
Record prices are exceptions. They concern a handful of rare pieces sought by a small circle of collectors, mostly in the Nordic countries. In the US, Moomin mugs are far less common in kitchen cupboards, and the resale market is much smaller.
Treasure hunting doesn’t stop at the cupboard: some things we throw away are worth real money, like this everyday item that contains 22-karat gold. And in the backyard, something we trample can be worth over $1,000 a kilo.
A white mug, a Moomin and a little patience. That’s the story.
