An elderly woman’s country home revealed a long-forgotten Chinese vase, once sold for just £44 ($56), now fetching $9 million in auction.
The discovery was made by Amsterdam-based art consultant Johan Bosch van Rosenthal.
The vase features a blue-and-white floral design, visible through its lattice-like body, and was crafted for the Qianlong Emperor, ruler of China for over 60 years.
Sotheby’s describes the vase as a “lost masterpiece.” It spent the last 50 years in a remote house in central Europe, surrounded by the owner’s pets.
Also labeled as a “technical tour-de-force” by Sotheby’s, the pear-shaped vase exemplifies “yangcai,” or “foreign colors,” a style of porcelain incorporating Western-style coloration and enamels.
“It is a miracle that this extraordinarily fragile vase survived half a century in a home surrounded by countless pets,” remarked Sotheby’s Asia chairman Nicolas Chow in a press statement.
The “double-walled” vase, a rare 18th-century artifact, was created by imperial kiln supervisor Tang Ying between 1742 and 1743.
Van Rosenthal, who uncovered the item, recalls finding it covered in dust after being invited by an elderly woman in her 80s to evaluate her art collection.
“We reached a room with a number of Chinese works of art inherited many years ago,” he said.
“Her four cats walked around freely among these. She pointed out a … partly gilded Chinese vase on a cupboard — a cherished object which she knew to be something special and valuable.”
Following its discovery, the vase underwent inspection by Sotheby’s experts who matched it to an item in the Chinese imperial household’s archives.
Kept in the Palace of Heavenly Purity, part of Beijing’s Forbidden City, the item was previously praised by the emperor for its design.