‘A crazy story’: how a Chinese vase valued at €2,000 sold for €8m

Level 2: Intermediate

1
  Warmer

a. These items have all been sold at auction. Put them in order from 1 (the one that sold for the
highest price) to 5 (the one that sold for the lowest price).

a. a painting of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol

b. Kurt Cobain’s guitar

c. the rarest stamp in the world

d. a 1933 double eagle gold coin

e. a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO car

2
  Key words

a. Find the following words in the text. The paragraph numbers are given to help you.
1. a noun meaning someone whose job is to sell things at a public sale where things are sold to the
person who offers the most money (paragraph 1)

2. an adjective meaning intended to look attractive rather than be useful

(paragraph 2)

3. a verb meaning give someone responsibility for an important job or activity

(paragraph 4)

4. a noun meaning an object that was made a long time ago and is historically important
(paragraph 5)

5. an adjective meaning believing that something is wrong (paragraph 6)

6. a two-word noun meaning a small circle of glass, usually with a handle, that makes things appear
bigger when you look at them through it (paragraph 7)

7. a noun meaning an offer to give a particular amount of money for something

(paragraph 9)

8. an adjective meaning very upset, afraid, or shocked because of a bad experience

(paragraph 10)

9. a verb meaning tell someone that they can no longer work at their job
(paragraph 11)

10. a noun meaning a decision concerning the value of something

(paragraph 11)
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 ‘A crazy story’: how a Chinese vase valued at €2,000 sold for €8m
Level 2: Intermediate
Kim Willsher  9 Osenat was conducting the sale of rapidly
7 October, 2022
1 Jean-Pierre Osenat has been an auctioneer
for 41 years but he has never seen anything
like it. “This is a crazy story,” he said. “Quite
extraordinary.”
2 One of his experts has lost his job, after a
Chinese vase he thought was just an ordinary
decorative piece worth €2,000 sold for almost
€8m, nearly 4,000 times the estimate.
3 “The expert made a mistake. One person alone
against 300 interested Chinese buyers cannot
be right,” Osenat said. “He was working for us.
He no longer works for us. It was, after all, a
serious mistake.”
4 The extraordinary story began earlier in 2022
when a French woman living abroad decided
to sell various objects from her late mother’s
home. She entrusted Osenat with the sale
and the vase was put in a “furniture and works
of art” auction where none of the items was
valued over €8,000.
5 The auction house catalogue noted that the
54cm by 40cm vase was in “good condition”.
The estimated price, between €1,500 and
€2,000, reflected the expert’s view that it was
a 20th-century decorative piece and not a
rare artefact.
6 Osenat said he became suspicious when the
catalogue went online and the pre-auction
exhibition attracted 300 to 400 interested
buyers 15 days before the sale.
7 “They came with lamps and magnifying glasses
to look at it. Obviously they saw something,” he
said. “There were so many registrations to take
part in the auction online that we had to stop
them. At that point, we understood something
was happening.”
8 Initially, the auction house staff thought the
unexpected interest was due to the passion
of the French Chinese community for China’s
art and history. Faced with such interest,
auctioneers decided not to allow online bids
and the number of buyers was limited to
30 – half in the auction room, the other half
bidding by telephone, with each required to pay
a €10,000 deposit to take part.
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increasing bids – €100,000, €200,000,
€500,000 – when someone shouted “Two
million!” By the time bids reached €5m, ten
buyers were still competing; by €7m, only two
remained. When the hammer finally came
down, the final bid had reached €7.7m.
10 Osenat said the vase had been in the seller’s
family for generations. She said they used to
put flowers in it. “She had lived with it for 30
years and never imagined it was worth that
much,” he said. “She’s completely traumatized.
If it had sold for €150,000, that would have
been something, but €7.7m is something else.
She’s terrified of being in the press.”
11 The buyer bid by telephone and lives in China.
The expert, who was sacked and has not been
named, is defending his original valuation.
Cédric Laborde, the director of the auction
house’s Asian arts department, is still not
entirely sure the expert was wrong. “We don’t
know whether the vase is old or not, or why it
sold for such a price. Perhaps we will never
know,” Laborde said.
12 “The valuation corresponded to what the expert
thought. In China, copying something, like an
18th-century vase, is also an art. In this case, I
don’t have an answer. Over the last few years,
there have been some surprises in auctions of
Asian objects.”
13 Osenat said he had faith in the auctioneer’s
hammer. “The expert thought it was a 20th-
century copy, a decoration, so we didn’t change
the estimate. In the end, the market decided it
was 18th century,” he said. “I have confidence
in the market. One expert said what he said …
but the real price is what the buyers decide.”
© Guardian News and Media 2022
First published in The Guardian, 07/10/2022
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 ‘A crazy story’: how a Chinese vase valued at €2,000 sold for €8m
Level 2: Intermediate

3
  Comprehension check

a. Are these statements True (T) or False (F) according to the article? Correct any that are false.

1. The expert thought the vase was worth €2,000.

2. 400 Chinese buyers were interested in the vase.

3. The seller lived in France.

4. People made bids for the vase online.

5. Each bidder had to pay a deposit of €10,000.

6. Ten buyers were still competing when the bidding reached €7 million.

7. The seller’s family used to put flowers in the vase.

8. The seller is happy with the amount of money she has got.

9. The buyer is a member of the French-Chinese community.

10. The auction house still doesn’t know if the vase is old or not.

4
  Key language

a. Rearrange the words to make phrases from the text.

1. like never it anything seen

2. the fifteen sale before days

3. not entirely sure still

4. few over years last the

5. four nearly times the estimate thousand

6. to deposit part pay a €10,000 to required take

5
  Discussion

a. Discuss these statements.

• “Most art is a waste of money.”

• “Auctions are the best place to find a bargain.”

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 ‘A crazy story’: how a Chinese vase valued at €2,000 sold for €8m
Level 2: Intermediate

6
  In your own words

a. Use an Internet search engine to find information about the works of art that have sold for the
highest price at auction.

b. Report your findings to the class.

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