Chinese vase left in attic shoebox priced at half a million euros for Sotheby’s auction
The owner of the piece says: ‘We didn’t like the vase too much, and my grandparents didn’t like it either’
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Experts have identified the find as an exquisite porcelain vessel made for the 18th-century Qing dynasty Qianlong Emperor and the guide price for its auction on June 12 starts at €500,000 (US$590,000).
It was found by chance among dozens of other pieces.
“We didn’t like the vase too much, and my grandparents didn’t like it either,” said the owner of the piece, who got in touch with Sotheby’s auction house three months ago.
“Porcelains with such elaborate and challenging designs are exceedingly rare on Qing imperial porcelain,” Sotheby’s said in its auction website. This piece, it added, is decorated with “an idyllic landscape with deer and cranes”.
It is also said to be in perfect condition.
“This vase is the only known example in the world bearing such detail,” Olivier Valmier, Asian arts expert at Sotheby’s, told reporters. “This is a major work of art.”
The only other similar vase that has come to light, though without the cranes, is in the Guimet Museum of Asian Art in Paris.
