Bowled Over: $3 Tag Sale Find Nets Owner Millions
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A small ceramic bowl that was purchased for $3 at a tag sale in New York has just been sold for over $2.22 million.
The auction house Sotheby’s says the ivory-colored pottery bowl was picked up in 2007, and sat for a time in its owners living room before they got curious and contacted experts who informed them of the item’s true provenance.
Turns out, the bowl was an extremely rare, thousand year-old treasure from China’s Northern Song Dynasty — and was worth far more than the purchase price.
The item went under the hammer on Tuesday, and while expecting to fetch hundreds of thousands, it finally sold to a London dealer named Giuseppe Eskenazi for $2,225,000.
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