Chinese Vase Sells for $69 Million

A 16-inch vase found during a house clearing in a London suburb sold for $69 million on Thursday, according to the London auction house Bainbridges. It’s a record price for any Asian piece of art, the auction house said. Helen Porter of Bainbridges said she isn’t sure who the buyer is, but believes that the winner was buying on behalf of a Chinese purchaser. The vase is from the 1740s and mysteriously came into the ownership of an English family sometime in the 1930s. The auctioneer at Bainbridges said the vase is from the Qianlong period and “would have resided ‘no doubt’ in the Chinese Royal Palace and was fired in the Imperial kilns.”