Rare Chinese bowl fetches €20.3m at auction

An extremely rare Chinese porcelain bowl fetched nearly HK$208m (€20.3m), smashing pre-sale estimates by about three times, as Sotheby’s wrapped up its season’s sale in Hong Kong.

The modest-looking imperial ceramic bowl that was made around 900 years ago had been expected to fetch up to $80m, but was snapped up by an unidentified telephone bidder.

The price sets a record for a piece of ceramic from the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), according to Sotheby’s, dwarfing the price for a “Guan” Mallet Vase, which went for $67.52m in 2008.