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| Chinese vase sold at small auction for millions |
Sensational £43m record for Chinese work of art in Ruislip
A small auction house in Ruislip has shattered the world auction record for a Chinese work of art by taking £43m for a vase consigned to their warehouse auction room as part of a house clearance from a bungalow in Pinner.
The price (£51.6m including buyer's premium) puts it in the top ten works of art ever sold at auction, an exclusive list that up to now has only been occupied by paintings and sculpture sold by either Sotheby's or Christie's.
Despite its modest recent history, the 16in (41cm)yang cai reticulated double-walled vase with famille rose decoration would have been a commission for one of the palaces of the Qianlong Emperor (1736-1795), probably the Summer Palace or the Forbidden City.
According to the world's leading dealers and collectors, it is the best object of its type to be seen on the market in decades, but it also chimes perfectly with current Chinese taste that values pieces from this period above all others.
Peter Bainbridge, the auctioneer, who runs a typical local auction room, is likely to have become a multi-millionaire himself as a result of the sale. His buyer's premium for this sale was 20 per cent, or £8.6m, while he could have charged the vendors anything up to 17.5 per cent, or just over £7.5m, to sell it.
Opening at £500,000 (the estimate prior to sale was £800,000-1.2m), the bidding on the evening of November 11 took 18 minutes, with the hammer falling at around 6.30pm to gasps and applause from a room packed with the world's leading dealers and collectors and their representatives.
