Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search

  • Advertisements

$3 bowl worth $2 million? Tag sale find goes for $2.225 million

A $3 bowl just sold for $2.225 million at Sotheby's in New York. The last time it changed hands, this 1,000-year-old Chinese bowl was sold at a tag sale for $3.

By Associated Press / March 19, 2013

This 1,000-year-old Chinese “Ding” bowl from the Northern Song Dynasty, purchased at a tag sale for no more than $3, was sold by Sotheby’s for $2.225 million on Tuesday, March 19.

Sotheby’s Auction House/AP

Enlarge

NEW YORK

When's the last time you made a million-fold return on investment? A rare Chinese bowl, bought at a tag sale for $3, has sold at a New York City auction for more than $2.2 million.

Skip to next paragraph

The 1,000-year-old bowl was part of the opening session of Sotheby's fine Chinese ceramics and works of art auction Tuesday.

Sotheby's says it was sold to a London dealer for $2.225 million, far above the presale estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.

The person who put the bowl up for auction bought it at a tag sale in 2007 and displayed it in the living room for several years before becoming curious about its origins and having it examined.

The bowl is white in color and from the Northern Song Dynasty.

  • Weekly review of global news and ideas
  • Balanced, insightful and trustworthy
  • Subscribe in print or digital

Special Offer

 

Doing Good

 

What happens when ordinary people decide to pay it forward? Extraordinary change...

Dave Valle started Esperanza International in 1995. Since then, Esperanza has given $38 million in microloans to support small businesses.

Dave Valle plays on a new field: microloans that help to end poverty

As a pro baseball player in the Dominican Republic Dave Valle saw poverty up close. Now his microloans are helping to end it.

 
 
Become a fan! Follow us! Google+ YouTube See our feeds!