Sotheby's photo
Rare Chinese art is fetching astonishing prices at auction these days. Just months after an imperial court vase worth about $75 million turned up in a country sale in Britain, an equally rare vase surprised Sotheby's experts this week when it attracted seven bidders who drove the sale price up to over $18 million.
Previously owned by a New York collector and art dealer, the vase was certainly not a garage sale find. Even so, experts had been divided about its age prior to the auction, some insisting that it was an early 20th century piece, while others thought it was an 18th century gem from the imperial court in Beijing. Sotheby's listed it at $800 to $1200 but bidders were willing to bet $18 million on the royal pedigree as Lee Rosenbaum reports in her culturegrrl column.
