Vase found in old shoebox sold for roughly $19 million

It's a story that won't come as a surprise to anyone who's watched enough Antiques Roadshow —an old, not-very-well-loved relic kept out of sight by a family that doesn't like it much, only to later learn it's worth a staggering sum of money.

In this case, a vase stashed for years wrapped in newspaper in a shoebox in an attic in France turned out to be a rare, exquisite Qing dynasty artifact and sold at auction Tuesday for a staggering €16 million this week — about $19 million, 20 times the estimate.

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It had been left to the owner's great-grandparents by an uncle, according to the auction house.

"We didn't like the vase too much and my grandparents didn't like it either," the vase's owner told Newsweek bluntly.

A vase that was long forgotten in an attic turned out to be worth big money this week. Click through the gallery for a roundup of paintings that sold for a ton of money. A vase that was long forgotten in an attic turned out to be worth big money this week. Click through the gallery for a roundup of paintings that sold for a ton of money. Photo: Motortion/Getty Images/iStockphoto Photo: Motortion/Getty Images/iStockphoto Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Vase found in old shoebox sold for roughly $19 million 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

The experts at Sotheby's, who were reportedly taken aback when the seller brought them the vase still wrapped in paper in a shoebox, did not exactly agree.

"Made in the imperial workshops at Jingdezhen under the patronage of the Qianlong emperor, its design is a tour de force, the highly complex, labour-intensive, multi-colored brocade-like fields and borders of formal floral-and-pearl designs on a sgraffiato ground clearly combined with a continuous scene of an idyllic landscape with deer and cranes devised to create an effect as opulent and luxurious as possible," the catalog notes read.

"Yangcai porcelains are extremely rare outside the National Palace Museum, Taipei."

"We were all stunned by the beauty of the piece," Sotheby's expert Olivier Valmier told Reuters.

The price was a record high for any single item sold at auction at Sotheby's in France, according to CNBC.

Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on Twitter