French family finds rare Chinese vase in attic, takes it to Sotheby’s in shoebox; sells for €16.18m

An 18th-century Chinese porcelain vase, forgotten in a French family's attic, sold for €16.18 million at Sotheby’s Paris in 2018. The family brought it to the auction house in a shoebox, unaware of its value. Experts identified it as a rare imperial vase made for the Qianlong Emperor, and it sold for over 23 times its estimated value.