Thrilling a treasure chest of 200 billion is forgotten

A wooden box that was bought for £ 100 only to make TV shelves sold for £ 6.3 million, after it was discovered to be a rare ancient Japanese treasure. copy.

In 1970, a man bought a box from a stranger for £ 100. Due to not realizing the true value of the item, this man used the trunk as a shelf for television and tea cups to drink water for years.

Recently, however, the "TV shelf" has been purchased for 63,000 times higher than the price of £ 100 the owner had previously spent.

The antique experts were very excited after discovering this rare antique item during the cleaning of the owner 's house when he died. The trunk is made of cedar wood and lacquer, which is confirmed to be a lost Japanese ancient box dating back to 1640.

Because of its rarity, the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) has spent a lot of effort searching the world since 1941. This is the last time museum workers see it. Surprisingly, this rare box is located right in a house in South Kensington, less than a mile from the museum until 1986, when the owner of the house moved away. Recently, it was purchased by the Rijks museum of Amsterdam (Netherlands) at the auction for up to £ 6.3 million, far higher than the initial price of £ 200,000. The son of the old owner of the ark, now 50 years old, suddenly turns into a millionaire after the night the Japanese ark is sold.

The ark is decorated both inside and out with gilded lacquer, recounting many Japanese legend stories, including the legend of Genji (the Japanese royalist school of the novelist nicknamed Murasaki Shikibu - PV)

History of thrilling treasure of treasures

The gilded lacquer box was crafted in Kyoto by a skilled Japanese craftsman named Kaomi Nagashige, for an Indian company in 1640. By 1658, it belonged to the French Army Commander - people have a relatively large collection of art and are handed down through generations of families. British poet William Beckford bought the ark in 1802 and left it to his daughter Euphemia, the Duke of Hamilton's wife. The treasure was later sold along with the sale of Hamilton Palace in 1882, and it was then the acquisition of famous collectors Sir Trevor Lawrence and Sir Clifford Cory. However, after Cory died in 1941, the ark disappeared in the hunt of many organizations and individuals around the world.

According to the family of the owner of the current ark, the ark was bought by a Polish doctor living in London. He was also unaware of its origins and sold it to a French engineer, who had just died, for only £ 100 in 1970. The man who retired from England moved from England. came to live in Loire Valley (France), and brought the trunk with him.

In this family, for many generations, like their deceased father, the children did not recognize the true value of the ancient box, but only considered it as a chest of his father's wine. Auctioneer Aymeric Rouillac, who works at Tours, France, said: 'When the father died, the family invited us to evaluate the value of the contents of the small house in Loire Valley. The only thing we find is worth a Flemmish watch, it's very beautiful but only worth a few thousand pounds. '

Aymeric Rouillac auctioneer on the treasure chest

Then, the other auctioneer was Philippe, Aymeric Rouillac's father, was invited. Here, he was invited by a daughter of the late man to have a glass of wine. The woman walked through an object like a large box placed in the corner of the room, above it was a television and covered with cloth. After leaving the TV from the trunk, she pulled the cover, opened the box and filled the bottle with wine. Philippe did not believe what appeared before his eyes. It is a beautiful gilded lacquer box. He asked the woman immediately what it was, and she answered that this was just her father's wine box.

After a surprised moment, expert Philippe called Rouillac, his son, who was in Paris and said that he had discovered something very nice. Shortly thereafter, the auctioneer began searching the internet for information on the object and found a picture of the trunk similar to the information that this was a Japanese ancient box, had Most searched in the world. After the auctioneers spent about 3 months studying the ark, they discovered an unbelievable story related to this precious object.

A few weeks before the auction, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles offered to buy for £ 2 million. Recognizing the true value of the ark, both father and son decided to continue bidding to find a higher price. Finally, the box was sold to the Rijksmuseum with a record price above.'Both the host family of the table was extremely excited, they could not believe that the father's wine chest was worth it,' said Aymeric Rouillac.