Rare Chinese Bronze Wine Vessel Fangyi
An online bidder paid $3.3 million at Christie’s International for an ancient Chinese wine vessel, thereby setting a new house record for the most expensive item sold online. The American collector bought a rare Shang dynasty wine vessel in Thursday’s sale of The Sze Yuan Tang Archaic Bronzes from the Anthony Hardy Collection.
With the sale of this rare Chinese bronze wine vessel Fangyi, from the late Shang dynasty from the 12th-11th century BC, the sale officially took away the top spot in the online bidding category which was previously held by the sale of a Stradavari violin sold for $1.27 million in April, 2008.
Christie’s remains the only international auction house to offer real-time, online bidding in all of its sale categories worldwide. There have been several lots that have sold for over $1 million throughout the Christie’s LIVE application and the number of online bidders has continued to rise.
