A secretaire piece of furniture made around 1745 by Christopher Townsend in Newport, Rhode Island, fetched US $ 8,25 million at Sotheby's New York on January 17th 1999. The mahogany secretaire with silver handles, which had been estimated between US $ 500,000 and 800,000, had remained in a Paris flat during two centuries after it had been brought by an American diplomat to France.
Sotheby's expert Leslie Keno said it was one of the most extraordinary pieces of furniture he had come across.
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