Unwanted Chinese vase stored in shoebox fetches record $25 million at auction
The centuries old Chinese vase was stored in an attic for decades. Photo: Sotheby's
An 18th-century Chinese vase stored for decades in a shoebox in a French attic has sold for a record 16.2 million euros ($25.1 million) at an auction in Paris.
The vase fetched more than 20 times the estimate of 500,000 euros to 700,000 euros ($775,000 to $1.1 million) and set a record price for a single item sold by Sotheby’s in France.
The vase, part of a family inheritance, was only recently discovered in an attic, the BBC reported on Wednesday.
Sotheby’s Asian arts expert, Olivier Valmier, said the vase’s seller took the valuable artefact on a perilous journey to the auction house, protected only by the shoebox and some newspaper.
“This person [the seller] took the train, then the metro and walked on foot through the doors of Sotheby’s and into my office with the vase in a shoebox protected by newspaper,” he said.
“When she put the box on my desk and we opened it, we were all stunned by the beauty of the piece.
“This is a major work of art. It is as if we had just discovered a Caravaggio.”
The 30-centimetre, bulb-shaped vase, painted in delicate shades of green, blue, yellow and purple, was described as an exceptionally well-preserved porcelain vessel made for an emperor of the Qing dynasty.
It depicts deer, birds and other animals in the woods, and includes gold embroidery around the neck.
The vase bears a mark of the Qianlong Emperor, who ruled China from 1736-1796.
Mr Valmier said the vase was in perfect condition and “the only known example in the world bearing such detail”.
The seller was not a fan of the vase. Photo: Sotheby’s
The seller was not as enthused.
“We didn’t like the vase too much, and my grandparents didn’t like it either,” the former owner was quoted as saying
A Sotheby’s spokeswoman said: “They knew it had some value but nothing like that, nor that it was from the Qing dynasty.”
The auction lasted some 20 minutes, a long time by usual standards for such sales, with multiple bidders battling for the prize.
The buyer was Asian but the company did not wish to reveal the name or nationality.
-with agencies
