Bought for just $35 near New Haven, Connecticut, last year, the small blue-and-white floral bowl is now worth nearly 29,000 times that price. It features motifs of lotus, peony, chrysanthemum and pomegranate blossoms, and was originally commissioned by China's imperial court during the Ming dynasty.
While Sotheby's is not disclosing the seller's identity, the head of its Chinese art department, Angela McAteer, revealed in a phone interview ahead of the sale that the man who found the bowl at the yard sale "didn't haggle over the $35 asking price."....
