An upstate New York family's modest yard sale purchase turned into a multimillion-dollar windfall when a roughly 1,000-year-old Chinese ceramic bowl sold at Sotheby's in New York on March 19, 2013. The five-inch Ding ware bowl, bought for approximately $3 in the summer of 2007, ultimately fetched $2.225 million at auction.
From Mantle to Museum-Quality Find
The family acquired the small white bowl at a local tag sale and placed it on a living room shelf as everyday decor. It remained there for five to six years before the family decided to seek an appraisal after noticing growing collector interest in Chinese art in the early 2010s.
Sotheby's specialists identified the piece as a Northern Song Dynasty Ding ware bowl, prized for its ivory-white glaze. The bowl was authenticated as approximately 1,000 years old and measured about five inches in diameter. According to Sotheby's, only one other similar bowl of the same size, form, and near-identical decoration was known to exist.
Auction Results Exceed Expectations
Before the sale, Sotheby's estimated the bowl at $200,000 to $300,000. However, bidding at the Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art auction significantly surpassed expectations, with the piece selling for $2.225 million. Sotheby's reported the bowl was purchased by a London dealer.
Cecilia Leung, a Sotheby's specialist, noted the stark contrast between the purchase price and final value, stating the family had no initial awareness of acquiring a 1,000-year-old artifact.
