From the article:

After a small bidding war Moore won the cloth fragment for $1,300. He decided not to reveal that fact to his wife, Susan Bowen.

“I didn’t want to tell her because then she’s going to ask me, ‘Where’d you get that and how much did you pay for it?’” he said. “It’s hard for me to lie about that.”

Even after the fragment was delivered, he kept it under wraps until his wife’s son was home.

“He thought it was safer to show me when there was somebody else around,” Bowen said.

As someone previously in an abusive relationship, it's nothing like a sure sign he's in one but it's a red flag.