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LONDON - An 18th century Chinese vase which had been gathering dust in the bottom of a wardrobe has sold for £2.8 million ($7.6 million), Sotheby's auction house said.
The blue-and-white "dragon vase" from the Qing dynasty was discovered by chance when its owner remarked to Sotheby's expert Alastair Gibson that she thought she owned a vase similar to one on display at a London exhibition.
"Her description of it piqued ... Gibson's interest and he asked if he could take a look," the auctioneers said in a statement.
Gibson visited the unidentified collector's house earlier this year and saw a piece almost identical to the one at the exhibition and later established that the two were closely related.
Wednesday's sale set an auction record for a piece of Qing dynasty blue-and-white porcelain, Sotheby's said, and far exceeded the pre-sale estimate of £800,000-stg1.2m.
"I remember seeing the brother of this piece ... in the Zwinger museum in Dresden many years ago," said Gibson, head of Sotheby's Chinese department in London.
"The memory of that piece has stayed with me always, and so to have come across the example sold today was for me the kind of dream that rarely comes true."
Sotheby's said the seller was Swiss and the buyer was fine art advisory group Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art.
- REUTERS
