25 March 2013

A simple white pottery bowl

A simple white bowl bought at an American garage or "tag" sale for $3 has sold at a New York City auction for more than $2.22m after it was recognised as a rare Chinese relic.

The 1,000-year-old bowl was part of the opening session of Sotheby's fine Chinese ceramics and works of art auction on Tuesday. Sotheby's said it was sold to a London dealer for $2.225m, far above the pre-sale estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.

The person who put the bowl up for auction bought it at a US "tag sale" or garage sale in 2007 and had it displayed in the living room for several years before becoming curious about its origins and having it examined.
Inspired by this story, I'm going to attend an estate auction this weekend.  Seriously.  Look at all this stuff.

Photo credit AFP/Getty Images.

1 comment:

  1. Those old fishing lures are worth good money.

    ReplyDelete