Who can forget the £53m Chinese Vase story?
It was on everyone’s lips for days, particularly as it turned out that the seller lived in Ventnor, here on the Isle of Wight.
A report in The Telegraph at the end of February claims that the purchaser might be getting cold feet about the idea and says that they haven’t handed over the cash.
“Buyer is having second thoughts”
The report says, “according to rumours in the arts world, the buyer is having second thoughts.”
On top of this, the auctioneer, whose company was due to collect £8.6m in sale commission alone, said he was, “was unable to confirm that any payment had been made.”
The paper says …
The man, an “extremely wealthy” Chinese industrialist, is said to have been pushed to buy the vase “at all costs” after losing an auction for a similar but less expensive item in Hong Kong earlier in the year.
Delays between purchase and payment are normal, however, antiques experts now believe the businessman has a severe case of “cold feet”.
