The vase was woefully undervalued on the BBC decades prior, then sold for millions (Picture: BBC/PA)
An incredibly valuable vase claimed to be worth just hundreds of pounds on a BBC show then sold for £53,000,000.
The porcelain vase dates back to the Qing dynasty in the mid-eighteenth century.
But none of this rich history was discovered when it made an appearance on the 1970s BBC antique series, Going for a Song, which is seen as an early version of the Antiques Roadshow.
A British couple took it on the series (originally presented by Max Robertson) on which ‘connoisseurs and customers explore the world of antiques’ and were left disappointed when the vase was dubbed a ‘very clever reproduction’ worth only £800.
It ended up in an attic for four decades, collecting dust, until the owners died and their relatives recovered it and pursued a new valuation in 2010, where Bainbridges Auction House experts saw its true potential.
‘They told me it had been valued at just £800 two months earlier. They also mentioned that it had been appraised on Going for a Song about 40 years ago, where it was deemed a reproduction,’manager David Reay said in resurfaced comments.
The Qianlong-dynasty vase has had a chequered history from imperial looting to BBC cameos (Picture: PA)
The show originally ran from 1965 to 1977 (Picture: BBC)
According to experts at the time, the 1740 Qing dynasty vase was looted by British and French soldiers from the Summer Palace in Peking during the Second Opium War occupied by Emperor Xianfeng.
Even then it was originally re-valued at £1million but pricing skyrocketed during bidding as buyers raced to get their hands on this precious historical artefact.
The final price was a whopping £43m from an anonymous, which totals £53,105,000 when VAT and commission is tacked on.
Auctioneer Pete Bainbridge described the ‘silence’ in the room as the figure soared ‘slowly but surely up to the sky’.
He added: ‘Once the hammer’s down, you do take stock and think, Oh, wow, that’s really rather a lot of money,’ as the ‘utterly normal’ family also reportedly processed the astonishing turn of events.
And Bainbridge employee Peggy Bates described the room as ‘cracking with excitement’.
At the time the record-breaking sale was ‘believed to have fetched the highest price for any Chinese artwork sold at auction’ and considered ‘one of the most important Chinese vases to go on sale this century.’
BBC’s current antiques show, helmed by Fiona Bruce, produces plenty of showstopping figures (Picture: BBC Studios)
It is not known who the BBC expert is who originally valued the vase at £800, although it’s likely Arthur Negus was the resident valuer on the show during this time.
Going for a Song ran from 1965 to 1977. It then returned to screens between 1995 and 2002 under three different presenters: Michael Parkinson, Anne Robinson and Michael Aspel before coming to an official end in 2002.
Meanwhile Antiques Roadshow – which has been running since 1979 in one form or another – was taken over by BBC presenter Fiona Bruce in 2008.
And there are plenty of times when the show has left participants flabbergasted at just how much an overlook antique is really worth.
In July, one man was left astonished when his ‘rare’ Omega watch from the 1960s was believed to be able to fetch a price of £40,000 to £50,000, according to Richard Price.
And in September, another hopeful was given the good news that their 122-year-old chocolate bar had the potential to sell for thousands.
Metro has reached out to BBC for comment.
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