Posted on 11/12/2010 11:32:42 AM PST by anglian
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.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
That’s $85,000,000 in Obama dollars.
£53.1 million?
That’s not a vase, it’s a vahz!
large photo and more info here:-
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/36340/a-chinese-fish-vase-found-in-an-attic-swims-to-an-85-million-world-record-in-london/
The World is NUTZ!!
Extraordinary!
Who bought it? Al Gore?
What good is it? It’s got holes all over it! Sheesh, you put some dirt and a plant in there and turn on the garden hose and what a mess... all over mom’s living room rug.
From the article:
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.
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i.e. STOLEN FROM THE CHINESE - I hope the ‘cheque’ clears the bank!!!!
It’s cute ... I only wish it was mine to SELL!
I could easily part with it.
Someone should have told the buyer that flower pots at Home Depot go for $5.99
Rather interesting timing, given yesterday’s flap about David Cameron wearing a poppy in his lapel as a symbol of Remembrance Day, and the Chinese leaders being offended by something that reminds them of their loss to Britain in the Opium Wars.
Well ...
“The hammer fell at 43 million but the total price, including commission and VAT on the commission, was £53,105,000. “
The extra ~ £10 million was for the commission and VAT.
I hope we don’t get the VAT here.
It is lovely. It’s in remarkable shape (even if this is just it’s good side). The color has remained vivid. I’m sure it’s worth it to the gentleman who bought it and it has certainly left a warm, fuzzy glow for their memories of Mum and Dad.
Yep, worth $85 Mil for sure. Yep. Yep,yep,yep.
And they did it about the time the Pilgrims arrived on our shores!
I heard about this in-freakin-credible story on the top-of-the-hour
ABC radio news today.
It’s amazing that some of the inheritors didn’t have a heart attack...
I suspect I would have.
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