A vase kept in an ordinary kitchen turned out to be a Qing-dynasty artwork | Hacker News Reader

A vase kept in an ordinary kitchen turned out to be a Qing-dynasty artwork

smithsonianmag.com

50 pointsdrdee13 comments

$1.8M is not bad, but the article also brings up a similar case in 2010 where a vase found when cleaning up a house was estimated to be worth $2M but was eventually sold for $83M?!?

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/nov/13/familys-old-ch...

Edit: it gets better. That $83M was never paid by the buyer in what may have been a protest organized by the Chinese government against the sale of looted treasures by the British. Meanwhile, the sellers were in the hook for a $14M estate tax that was based on the auction price.

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/top-news/antiques/repor...

I wonder how seller can be on the hook if the money was never received. That seems odd?

>$14M estate tax that was based on the auction price

Key phrase: estate tax. This was a taxable transfer of property that someone didn't take to the grave.

In the UK it's called Inheritance Tax and is basically a 40% tax on your estate when you die. They add up everything, the house, vehicles, savings & shares, artworks and that is then taxable at 40% in most situations. This means generally you have to sell a lot of things to inherit anything valuable from your parents.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax

> Inheritance Tax is a tax on the estate (the property, money and possessions) of someone who’s died. > > There’s normally no Inheritance Tax to pay if either: > > the value of your estate is below the £325,000 threshold > > you leave everything above the £325,000 threshold to your spouse, civil partner, a charity or a community amateur sports club

>And despite an original valuation of around $186,000, it just sold for $1.8 million at auction.

Somebody almost got away with something there.

It was presumably appraised around 30 years ago. The value of Chinese antiques probably appreciated quite a lot since then, given the relative growth in purchasing power of people most interested in owning them. Not just ethnic Chinese, but also those globally with disposable income for collecting rare things in general.

As I type, I'm looking at a Chinese vase owned by my great grand father, taken from China in the early 20th century - and turned into a lamp (bulb and lampshade stuffed in the top, beautiful carved wood base on the bottom). Qing Dynasty was the Manchus, the last Chinese empire ending in 1912 so my thing is Qing Dynasty vase too. "Wow!"

As I understand it, as modified, this thing is pretty much valueless. I'd love it if there was a chance otherwise. Even more, I think by the time of the Qing Dynasty, China production of vases was huge. Some might have been worth millions but most were just throw-aways. I think Ai Weiwie was able to have an art show smashing Chinese vases because there are so many of them around.

https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/art-crime/0/steps/1...

I saw those pictures at the gallery, I would consider that to be capturing a piece of performance art.

I would like to take a moment to point out how beautiful the gold inlay on the design is. That would have been very difficult to do at the time.

Could it be said that the vase was ordinary in the 18th century? How valuable would have been immediately after it had been made?

for those willing to Google translate, here is the Baidu page about the marque on the bottom

https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%A4%A7%E6%B8%85%E4%B9%BE%E9%...

Antiques Roadshow is now front-page content?

https://youtu.be/sYxmRwyv-Vs

I too would like a dedicated display space for voluminous exotic vases in my ordinary kitchen.

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