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A bidding duel between Asian buyers at a London auction sale held on November 11, 2010 pushed a Qianlong-dynasty vase to a price of 51.6 million pounds ($83.2 million), a world record bid for a piece of Chinese art.

The vase had been discovered by a brother and his sister during a routine house clearance in the suburb of Pinner in London following the death of their parents. It was sold by Bainbridges, a Ruislip auction house in West London, with an estimate of 800,000 pounds to 1.2 million pounds but the battle opposing several Chinese buyers led the hammer to fall at 43 million pounds while the sister, co-seller of that vase, had to rush outside to breathe some fresh air to overcome her dizziness when she became aware that she had become a millionaire.

The vase is an exceptional Imperial piece in perfect condition with the most amazing reticulated decoration. No wonder that it rendered Chinese buyers extatic to the extent of being prepared to pay an incredible price. This 18th-century vase beat the record of 436.8 million yuan ($65.9 million) paid for a 15- meter-long Song Dynasty scroll at Beijing Poly International Auction Co. in June 2010 and smashed the latest record of 18 million pounds established for a Chinese imperial vase at a Sotheby's sale held in Hong Kong five weeks ago.

Peter Bainbridge, director of the auction house, was enthralled by such result especially as the former record for his small business stood at 100,000 pounds for a Ming enamel piece sold two years ago.

A bidding battle between six people in the room and three telephone bidders was won by a man in a black jacket who sat on a gilded sofa at the front. The buyer, who refused comment after the sale, was a Beijing-based agent, according to Bainbridge. The piece was in fact a rarity since it had a pierced double-wall body with roundels of fish.