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parent die and children take over old folk house, found vase and sold to fithy rich PRC. only 260+ years old, already 53 million, what would a tang dynasty vase cost? remember to check your old junk your parent left behind. especially if you have ancestor who ransack the forbidden city.
Chinese vase sells for world record-breaking £53.1 million at auction
A Chinese vase discovered during a house clearance sold for a world record-breaking £53.1 million last night.
Murray Wardrop
By Murray Wardrop 11:22PM GMT 11 Nov 2010
The 18th century Qianlong porcelain vase had been estimated to fetch between £800,000 and £1.2 million by Bainbridges, the provincial auction house handling the sale.
A Chinese vase discovered during a house clearance sold for a world record-breaking £53.1 million last night.
The 18th century Qianlong-dynasty porcelain vase is believed to have fetched the highest price for any Chinese artwork sold at auction
However both the auctioneers and the owners were stunned when it went for the highest price of any Chinese artwork sold at auction.
The elaborately decorated piece was put up for sale by a brother and sister who found it while clearing out their parents’ home in Pinner, north-west London after they recently died.
The hammer fell after 30-minutes of furious bidding between six men in the room and three telephone bidders. It was eventually sold to a Chinese man, said to be a Beijing-based agent, who sat on a gilded sofa at the front of the room but refused to comment after the sale.
The owners, who had no idea quite how much the vase was worth, were so shocked that they had to leave the room for a breath of fresh air.
Standing 16 inches tall and decorated with fish, the vase is thought to date from the time of Qianlong, the fourth emperor in the Qing dynasty, around 1740.
Experts said it probably once belonged to Chinese royalty but was most likely taken out of the country at the end of the Second Opium War in 1860 when the palaces were ransacked.
It is understood to have been in the vendors’ family since the 1930s.
The astronomical price was reached due to the rising demand for Imperial associated trophies among Chinese collectors.
Commenting on the sale, Ivan Macquisten, editor of Antiques Trade Gazette, said: “Chinese art is the biggest bidding market in the art world right now.
“The most extraordinary thing about it is that it wasn’t sold by the likes of Sotheby’s or Christie's, this was sold at a little auctioneers operating out of a warehouse in Ruislip.
“He (the auctioneer) will certainly be able to retire on the proceeds he’s made on his fees from this – this is lottery money in fees."
The hammer fell at £43 million but the total price, including commission and VAT on the commission, was £53,105,000.
Peter Bainbridge, director of the auction house, said: “I’m thrilled that a provincial auction room can show what it can do.
“I’m also delighted to have handled such an astonishing work of art. I didn’t quite realise how exciting it was.”
The auction house's previous highest sale was £100,000 for a Ming enamel piece a couple of years ago.
The vase has a yellow painted trumpet neck and a double-walled construction, meaning an inner vase can be seen through the perforations of the main body.
Helen Porter, of Bainbridges, said: "In the 18th century it would have resided no doubt in the Chinese Royal Palace and was most certainly fired in the Imperial kilns.
"It is a piece of exquisite beauty and a supreme example of the skill of the ceramicist and decorator.
“They (the vendors) had no idea what they had. They were hopeful but they didn't dare believe until the hammer went down.
"When it did, the sister had to go out of the room and have a breath of fresh air."
The vase beat the record for any Chinese work of art sold at auction, 436.8 million yuan (£40.9 million) paid for a 15-meter-long Song Dynasty scroll at Beijing Poly International Auction Co. in June this year.
