It is the stuff of fantasy. Discovered by chance by an auctioneer in a private home in Aubange, Belgium, a few hundred metres from Rodange, the vase was auctioned last weekend for the sum of €78,000 at Goldfield Auction, located in Weiswampach.

“I had been called to this house by its owners. They wanted to have some of their property appraised. And in the living room, I saw this vase that was presented like so many others and that they didn't really want to ask me to appraise,” explains Raphaël Remy, the Belgian auctioneer of the Luxembourg auction house. Very interested in Chinese porcelain, the 42-year-old former antiques dealer spotted it on his own and appraised it as dating from the 18th century.

Estimated at €15,000, sold at €78,000

“It is a 22cm-high vase, Meiping shape on a ruby background and decorated with flowers dating from the reign of the Qianlong emperor (1735-1796),” says the man who was an antiques dealer for 20 years in Brussels. He estimated it for a sum ranging from €10,000 to €15,000.

This was without counting on Asian bidders present (virtually) on Sunday, among 800 potential buyers. They were very interested and went up to €78,000 to secure the antique, a record sale for a young company that has only existed for 15 months.

“Asian art is currently the most expensive. In my opinion, it is even at its peak, with some wealthy Chinese wanting to repatriate many of their treasures that have been scattered all over the world,” says Remy. And since Belgium has been a hub via the port of Antwerp, many of the works can be found there.

Beyond this vase, other great deals were concluded in Weiswampach, as the 483 lots put up for sale on Sunday brought in a total of more than €400,000.

“With the success of the TV show 'Affaire conclue', people are beginning to realise that they sometimes have rare pieces at home. But while the record sale in this TV show is €21,000, we can go higher with a professional house like ours for certain objects. This vase is proof of that,” Remy says. And he sees a huge potential for this in Luxembourg. “Simply because it hasn't really been exploited here yet.”

This article was first published on Delano.lu in French. It has been translated and edited for Delano.