3,000-year-old bottles of wine expected to fetch £2m at auction(1)
What a corker! The 3,000-year-old Chinese bronze containers of the aging tipple were acquired by two Jewish brothers who fled Poland at the start of World War Two, with one of them seeking sanctuary in Shanghai
They say fine wine improves with age, but 3,000 years may be pushing it a little.
Although it certainly isn't hurting the value of two ancient bottles which have been valued at a staggering £2million.
The Chinese bronze containers of the aging tipple were acquired by two Jewish brothers who fled Poland at the start of World War Two, with one of them seeking sanctuary in Shanghai.
Having been exposed to the Chinese culture, he was re-united with his brother after the war and the pair started delving into the oriental art market.
The brothers realised the importance of the ritual vessels when they came onto the market in the 1960s and paid £1,000 each for them.
They have since been passed down to the granddaughter of one of the men, known only as Mr J Goldstein.
She has now made them available for sale at auction in London, a move that has stunned the art world as their existance has been largely unknown of because they have been in the family’s private collection for decades.
They are being tipped to sell for a whopping £1million and £800,000 respectively.
One of them, a rectangular fangyi vessel, dates back to the Chinese Shang dynasty between 1300 to 1050BC
It is exquisitely decorated, indicating it was a special object associated with the ruling class of the society and experts have described the quality as ‘quite exceptional’.
It has an inscription on it that is translated into ‘Prince Shu is at Zhi to make a sacrificial vessel for the cultured ancestor Father Yi’.
An identical inscription is cast on a jue goblet at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco which would suggest the two pieces once formed part of the same set that was unearthed before 1850.
