900-year-old Chinese bowl sold for $38 million at Sotheby’s auction

Almaty. October 4. Silkroadnews – 900-year-old Chinese bowl sold for $38 million at Sotheby’s auction, CNN reported.
“An antique Chinese bowl fetched a whopping $38 million at auction. The purchase of the 900-year-old bowl, which was fashioned during the Song dynasty, sets a new auction record for Chinese porcelain, auction house Sotheby’s said,” the report said.
It is noted that an anonymous buyer placed a winning bid of 294 million Hong Kong dollars ($38 million) after 20-minute trading in Hong Kong.
According to Sotheby's, the amount that was supposed to be gained for the bowl was at least 100 million Hong Kong dollars ($13 million).
The auction house presented the blue-green cup as “a highly important and extremely rare” piece of art. Brush washer are small porcelain bowls, which were used in ancient China to clean brushes for calligraphy.
“The multimillion-dollar bowl comes from the once-famous kilns of Ruzhou, situated in what is now the central Chinese province of Henan. It dates from the late Northern Song dynasty, which lasted from 960 to 1127,” the publication reads.
The style of the bowl is known as Ru guanyao, or Ru “ice crackle”. The final look is made when the bowl is removed from the oven and the temperature difference during the cooling creates cracks in the glaze reflecting light. Since 1940, only six ceramic products made in the style of Ru were presented at the auction. The last one, another Ru “ice crackle” bowl, was sold at Sotheby’s for 208 million Hong Kong dollars ($27 million) in 2012.