Chinese vase worth less than $2,000 sells for nearly $9 million after bidding war

A Chinese vase worth €1,500-2,000 (about $1,470-$1,960) at auction has sold for over 9 million euros ($8.8 million) after a war of auction among collectors, according to a CNN report.

The blue and white Tianqiuping vase sold at the Osenat auction house in Fontainebleau, near Paris, France, on Saturday, October 1, and fetched a final price of 9.121 million euros including fees, according to the site. Internet of the Osenat company.

The vase has a spherical body and a long cylindrical neck. It measures 21 x 16 inches and is decorated with dragons and clouds, according to the company’s listing. Tianqiuping vases are also known as “heavenly sphere” vases due to their shape.

Jean-Pierre Osenat, president of the Osenat auction house, said the owner of the vase, who lives abroad, had asked the auctioneer to sell it as part of a lot of objects from from their late grandmother’s home in Brittany, in northwestern France.

“It’s going to completely change their lives,” Osenat told CNN on Tuesday.

“It’s hard for them to reconcile.”

The grandmother was an avid art collector and had owned the vase for 30 years, he said, adding that there were early signs of huge interest in the vase when dozens of people turned up. came to examine it during a pre-auction exhibition.

Around 300-400 people expressed interest in the auction, before it was narrowed down to 30, all of whom had to pay a deposit to participate.

There were 15 bidders by phone and 15 present at the auction house, 10 of whom were still bidding when the price passed the 5 million euro mark, Osenat said.

“It’s incredible,” he said, adding that its highest sale price was reached in 2007, when a sword used by Napoleon at the Battle of Marengo in 1800 fetched 6.4 million. dollars.

Collectors believed it to be a very rare example of an 18th century Tianqiuping vase, although professionals initially thought it to be 20th century art and thought it was not worth bidding.

“I have faith in the hammer, which is to say I believe the law of supply and demand determines the market price,” he said. “One expert’s point of view cannot trump that of 300 people.”

Sometimes at auctions you can see two or three people who mistakenly believe that an item is much more valuable than an expert has said, but not 300, Osenat said.

“I think the market has spoken,” he said, adding that he now believes the vase dates to the 18th century.