Sale year: 2012
Sale price: $32.8 million
Price today: $44.53 million
In 2010, Gene Johnson and her son, Tony, were clearing out the London house of Gene’s late sister when they found a dusty, brightly colored vase on a shelf. Gene’s brother-in-law, Mr. Newman, had bought it during a trip to the Far East in the 1930s. The unusual ceramic has a double wall, with an inner vase and an outer celadon green reticulated, or lattice, body, with a yellow enamel neck and base. The pair took the vase to Bainbridges Auction House, where art experts dated the rare, elaborately decorated ceramic to the mid to late 18th-century Qing Dynasty. In November, a private buyer from mainland China bought the vase at auction, setting a then-world record for Asian art of £43 million. However, the buyer failed to pay and Bainbridges resold the vase privately two years later for £25 million.
