Chinese bowl bought for $3 sells for $2.2 million

NEW YORK – The old adage "one man's trash is another man's treasure" still holds true.

A rare and very old Chinese bowl purchased at a second-hand "tag" sale for $3 sold at Sotheby's auction house in New York Tuesday for $2.23 million.

The white ivory-glazed bowl, 5 inches in diameter, had been bought in 2007 for a few dollars at a market,  Cecilia Leung of Sotheby’s told CNN News.

“At the time, the purchaser had no idea that they had happened upon a 1000-year-old treasure.” 

The bowl sat on a shelf in the living room of the owner's upstate New York house, and when the family, who has remained anonymous, noticed the increased interest in Chinese art among collectors in recent years, it had the bowl valued, Sotheby's told ABC News. 

At Sotheby's Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art auction in New York Tuesday, the bowl was expected to sell for about $200,000 but focused bidding from four interested parties saw the price jump sharply, AP reported.

London dealer Giuseppe Eskenazi eventually won the "Ding bowl."

Sotheby's said the only other known bowl of the same size, form and almost identical decoration has been in the collection of the British Museum in London for over 60 years.