Antique Chinese bowl estimated at 4 mln USD at Christie's sale in New York

A rare antique Chinese Ding bowl with an estimated worth of 4 million U.S. dollars will be sold today at Christie's in New York.

The museum-quality piece has been appraised as the most valuable piece among the artworks offered at Christie's in New York at the on-going Asian Art Week sales. [Photo: Christies.com]

The museum-quality piece -- a Ding russet-splashed black-glazed conical bowl that dates back to the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) -- has been appraised as the most valuable piece among the artworks offered at Christie's in New York at the on-going Asian Art Week sales.

Only three dark-glazed bowls with russet streaks are known to exist today, and the other two of them belong to Harvard Art Museum and the Palace Museum in Taipei.

The ancient piece is described as a Ding bowl after Ding County, Hebei province where the kilns used to make the bowls were housed. Ding ware is regarded as one of the five great wares of the Song era.

A Ding bowl with fine near-white body and an ivory-colored glaze was sold for 2.2 million U.S. dollars at an auction at Sotheby's in 2013.

The rare Chinese bowl was bought for about 3 U.S. dollars from a yard sale in 2007 by a New York family who had it displayed in the living room.