Vase valued at $2,000 sells for $7,500,000 (That’s Million!)
Photo taken on Aug. 11, 2022 shows the Flower Vase with Dragon Motif from Northern Song Dynasty, displayed at Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, the United States. (Photo by Xu Jing/Xinhua via Getty Images) TO GO WITH Feature: Art collection gives U.S. heartland taste of Chinese culture
Everyone makes a mistake once in a while, but have you ever made a seven million dollar mistake? This is crazy! An employee of a French auction house is out of a job after undervaluing a blue and white Chinese dragon vase.
According to The Guardian, they thought the vase was a copy and valued it at around nineteen hundred bucks. Turns out, buyers thought it was the real deal and the vase sold for a whopping seven and a half million dollars.
The white vase, which has blue dragon and cloud illustrations all over it, might not be a 20th century copy as the employee believed. Instead, the market determined it was a true Qing dynasty vase stamped by the dynasty’s fifth emperor, Qianlong, who reigned from 1735 to 1799. Jean-Pierre Osenat, who has gaveled at auctions for 41 years, told the outlet, “This is a crazy story. Quite extraordinary.”
As for the employee who lost their job for mislabeling the vase, Osenat said, “The expert made a mistake. One person alone against 300 interested Chinese buyers cannot be right…he was working for us. He no longer works for us. It was, after all, a serious mistake.” The vase came into the auction house’s possession via an anonymous seller who found it while going through their late mother’s estate. Once the vase was listed, Osenat said interest sparked almost immediately. “They came with lamps and magnifying glasses to look at it. Obviously, they saw something,” he said, adding that bidding for the vase was “frantic.”
As for the seller, Osenat said, “She’s completely unsettled. If it had sold for a hundred and fifty thousand that would have been something, but [seven and a half million] is something else. She’s terrified of being in the press and quite traumatized by it.”
The buyer will remain anonymous. The employee still believes the vase is a copy.
Twitter Reacts To Vincent Van Gogh Painting Being Vandalized
Last week there was some pretty shocking news from our United Kingdom friends as a painting by Vincent Van Gogh was vandalized by activists protesting climate change. The sunflower painting held in the National Gallery in England has been there for nearly 100 years and is worth nearly 85 million USD.
Well, two protestors from the group JustStopOil took it upon themselves to hold a surprise public demonstration within the art museum, they did so by giving Van Gogh’s work an update by throwing Soup at the photo and then gluing themselves to the wall.
After they were removed and taken into custody the painting was taken down and inspected for damages as a protective glass was thankfully blocking the art. Officials have since confirmed that the art itself is fine, the only thing damaged beside the wall was the frame, and only slightly.
The pair pled not guilty when they appeared in court this past weekend to vandalism, however, they were not the only protestors from the group to make headlines as media attention quickly criticized the group’s methods on Twitter, here are some of the reactions we were able to find.
Joel Katz is the Morning Show Personality, Assistant Program Director, Podcast Host, Voiceover artist, audio producer, and Digital Content Writer for Magic 98.3. Joel has been working in New Jersey radio since college and started at Magic in 2002 as the Morning Show Host, “I can’t think of another place where I’d fit more perfectly; it’s just a great company with awesome people.” Joel is married to Kathleen, his elementary school sweetheart (they were each other’s first dates at age 9), shares a birthday with his oldest son, Ty, and has twins, Kiera and Liam. Joel runs at least 3.1 miles every day and enjoys playing basketball, doing laundry, saving his turn signal for when he really needs it, kissing dogs through a fence, using coasters, making that cool noise by rubbing his fingers on balloons, and chasing after ping pong balls on a windy cruise ship.
