Dusty Attic Yields a Qing Dynasty Relic and a Record Price

Source: NY Times

By JOHN F. BURNS

LONDON — As treasure-in-the-attic stories go, the 18th-century Chinese vase sold at a suburban auction house in outer London on Thursday night will be hard to beat.

The delicate, decorative 16-inch vase started at a not-inconsequential $800,000, but after a half-hour of unexpectedly spirited bidding, the gavel fell at $69.5 million. It was the highest price ever paid at auction for a Chinese antiquity.

Adding in the 20 percent buyer’s premium levied by the auction house and Britain’s value-added tax, the total came to $85.9 million. Auction insiders said the buyer was from mainland China and bid by telephone.

Of the sellers, the auction house, Bainbridge’s, said only that they were a brother and sister who had found the vase “in a dusty attic” when they were clearing out the family home in west London, near Heathrow Airport, after their parents died. The other Chinese knickknacks they found sold for as little as $65.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/world/europe/13vase.html?_r=1&partner=EXCITE&ei=5043

---

Wow.

And if you like stories of attic treasures, join us over in the Antiques and Collectibles topic on DU. There's a thread on the new TV show Hollywood Treasures (Syfy channel) and the finding of the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car in England. Not worth 89 million, but still interesting!

probably got rich thru America's outsourcing.

I found a pair of old tighty whities.

Imagine my dismay when I found them NOT to be Sam Houston's!