An 18th century Chinese porcelain vase which could have sold for a record $83 million two years ago was auctioned off in London for less than a half the price.

The beautifully decorated vase made for the Qianlong Emperor, initially went under the hammer on November 11, 2010 in a suburban auction. It was sold for a price over 50 times the estimate, $83 million, to a Beijing-based collector Wang Yaohui, Financial Times reports. The buyer, however eventually refused to pay the agreed sum.  If he had coughed up the money the vase would have become the most expensive piece of Chinese art ever offered for sale at auction. 

The 40 centimeters-tall 1740 Quing vase was discovered in a London attic. After the failed sale the owners, a retired solicitor called Tony Johnson and his mother Gene, put the artefact up for sale again.

This time the vase went for between $32 million and $40 million to an unnamed Asian collector at a Bonhams sale. The exact figure was not disclosed.  
“Bonhams is pleased to confirm the sale of the vase for an undisclosed sum, in a private treaty deal,” Bonhams said in a statement.

“It’s the right price. That was the figure at which most people were interested when the vase was originally offered. It’s settled to its true value,” Bloomberg quotes London-based dealer Roger Keverne as saying.

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