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A blue-and-white Chinese vase with an estimated value of less than $2,000 rocked the antiques landscape when it sold for $8.8 million during a heated bidding war at a French auction house over the weekend.

The vase, with its spherical body and a long cylindrical neck, measures 21 inches tall and is decorated with dragons and clouds, according to the listing at Osenat, an auction house near Paris that handled the sale. A valuation expert said the vase dated from the 20th century, and was not terribly special. Bidders thought otherwise, believing it is a rare example of an 18th-century Tianqiuping vase.

A Tianqiuping-style vase sold for $8.8 million after a pre-auction estimate of less than $2,000.

Jean-Pierre Osenat, president of the auction house, told CNN that the vase’s owner, who lives abroad, asked the auctioneer to sell it as part of a consignment of items taken from their late grandmother’s house in Brittany, northwestern France.

“It’s going to completely change their life,” said Osenat. “It’s hard for them to come to terms with.”

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