Antiques Roadshow vase once dismissed, sells for record £53 Million

A porcelain Chinese vase, being identified as a reproduction by BBC’s ‘Going for a Song’, has shocked the world by being sold for £53 million. At first, the porcelain vase was bought for £800 in the 1970s and it turned out to be valuable piece of art artefact of the Qing dynasty, with years of history and tradition aligning with it. This vase was eventually lost by the owners for several decades and was found again in an attic after the death of the couple who owned it.

Relatives had their doubt over its actual value and thus they sold the painting at Bainbridges Auction House where the staff were able to establish it as an 18th century piece created for emperor Qianlong. They thought it was taken from Beijing’s Summer Palace during the Second Opium War, which enriches its provenance, to say the least.

Although specialists on a show that preceded Antiques Roadshow dismissed the vase as a mere ‘very clever reproduction,’ its design and creation were acknowledged during the subsequent appraisal process. Originally estimated at £1 million, people bid during the auction raised to £43 million. With the commission added and the VAT taking it to £53,105,000 to be precise, the painting entered the record books of the auction houses.

The Antiques Roadshow vase story gives modern art and antique lovers a great example of why an expert re-examination is sometimes significant. It also voices of the growth and fluctuations of valuation, where historically provenanced and scarce items either increase tenfold in value or are rendered priceless with the flow of time. Collectors and enthusiasts are hereby cautioned that the best place to find treasures is not far away but somewhere nearby.

This story of this Chinese vase is a perfect example of how the art business is a game of unpredictability at that. It tells the story of a humble vase bought at an attic and then selling for a record amount of money, which brings its story to the world of Antiques Roadshow television program, with audience to appreciate its value in the history of auctions.