Chinese Record Setting Vase Resold

Bloomberg is reporting the Chines vase which sold for $83 million in November of 2010 at Bainbridges auction outside London was resold through Bohhams in a private treaty sale.

The article states the original purchaser from Bainbridges failed to pay.  If you recall, there were many rumors of payment, non payment and negotiations   The recent selling price is said to have been between $32 million and $40 million, or about half of the Bainbridges record.  The new buyer is said to be an Asian collector.

Bloomberge reports

A Chinese vase for which a bidder offered a record 51.6 million pounds ($83 million) at auction more than two years ago has been sold for less than half the price the original purchaser failed to pay.

The elaborately decorated 18th-century porcelain vase, described as being made for the Qianlong Emperor, was auctioned by Bainbridges in Ruislip, west London, on Nov. 11, 2010.

The winning bid was more than 50 times the presale estimate. The price, including auction house fees, was a record for any Asian work of art offered at auction. The bid was made by an agent in the room on behalf of the Beijing-based collector, Wang Yaohui, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

The owners, a retired solicitor called Tony Johnson and his mother Gene, waited two years for a resolution. They have now sold the vase to another buyer for an undisclosed price between 20 million pounds and 25 million pounds, said a person with knowledge of the matter.

The private transaction was brokered by the London-based auction house Bonhams. The vase has now been exported. The new owner has been identified by dealers as an Asian collector.

“Bonhams is pleased to confirm the sale of the vase for an undisclosed sum, in a private treaty deal,” according to an email from Julian Roup, Bonhams’s director of press and marketing.

House Clearance

The Qing-dynasty rarity, featuring a pierced “reticulated” body painted in a famille rose palette, was discovered during a routine house clearance in the London suburb of Pinner.

In perfect condition, the vase had been owned by William and Pat Newman, who died in 2006 and 2010 respectively. It then passed to Pat Newman’s sister, Gene. It isn’t known how William Newman acquired the piece.

The record bid for the so-called “Ruislip Vase” was the highest of a series of big-ticket prices for imperial Chinese porcelain that were pledged, if not always paid, by Asian bidders at auctions in 2010.

Auction sales of art and antiques in China in 2010 were valued at 6 billion euros ($8.6 billion), a 177 percent increase on 2009, according to a European Fine Art Foundation report published in March 2011.

Source: Bloomberg