China Song Vase Smashes All Records
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BEIJING – A Chinese entrepreneur paid $20 million at an auction for an eighth century white porcelain vase, a record for antiquities in China, state television and an auction house employee said yesterday. The sale highlighted the soaring prices that newly rich Chinese collectors are paying for cultural relics at home and abroad.
The vase, made during the 960-1279 Song dynasty, was sold April 15 in Beijing during an antiquities fair, an employee of the Red Sun International Auction Company, Lu Fei, said.
Mr. Lu wouldn’t give the buyer’s name, but said he was manager of a company in the eastern province of Jiangsu. He said the seller was a 60-year-old descendant of a family that has collected art for three generations.
The 14 1 / 2 -inch-tall vase was made at a kiln in central China, the state television report said.
“We did not expect the deal could be done at a such high price. The starting auction price was 60 million yuan [US$7.5 million],” Mr. Lu said.
