A Chinese vase has raised millions for the Osenat auction house in France. The value of the vase had previously been estimated by an appraiser at 1,500 euros, as reported by the Parisian newspaper Le Parisien. But it was sold for 7.7 million euros. The final purchase price, including all fees charged by the seller, should even amount to 9.12 million euros.
Jean-Pierre Osenat, an auctioneer, says he has never seen anything like it: "This beats the price of Napoleon's saber at the Battle of Marengo in 1800, because the saber was sold for 4.2 million euros in 2007! That is Hard to believe! The Chinese have an eye for Asian art that we don't have."
The director of the auction house Cédric Labord of the British newspaper The Guardian also confirmed the great interest in the vase: "From the moment the catalog was published, we saw enormous interest and more and more Chinese came to see the vase see."
The anonymous buyer was one of around 30 Chinese bidders and had won the bid over the phone. According to Labord, the buyer apparently assumes that the auction house misjudged the value of the vase. "Our expert still thinks the vase is not old."
Made of porcelain and enamel, the vase is in the Tianqiuping style and painted with dragons and clouds. The vase is about 54 centimeters high and has a diameter of 49 centimeters.
The vase was auctioned off by a woman who lives in a French overseas territory. The 59-year-old inherited the vase from her mother and is said to have never seen it herself. Instead, she had the vase shipped from her mother's house in Brittany to Paris, where it was sold by the Osenat auction house in Fontainebleau.
According to Osenat, the woman could not believe the sum for which the vase was auctioned. "She's a simple woman who lives in shorts and crocs all day! It's hard for her to realize that she's lived next to this very precious item for over 30 years!" said Osenat.
The woman could also have sold the vase to an antique dealer. But then she would probably only have received 1,000 or 1,500 euros for it.
Quellen: Le Parisien, The Guardian
