WHEN auctioneer Peter McKenzie first saw the Chinese vase, it was sitting on the edge of a piece of furniture in a family home.

“It could have been knocked over.” Mr McKenzie said. “It could’ve been given away, it could’ve been sold to a second-hand dealer for $50.

“A corrupt dealer could’ve come in and seen it for what it is and offered $100 for it — they probably would’ve taken it. That’s the irony of it.”

The vase’s owners, a western suburbs family, are no doubt glad they asked Mr McKenzie to take a look. The vase sold for a whopping $455,000 this week to a collector based in China, and is moving from its precarious position on a sideboard in a home in suburban Perth to a Chinese museum.

The sale has been anything but straightforward. The vase, which Mr McKenzie believes was painted by artist Wang Dafun in the early 20th century, sold at a hotly contested auction two weeks ago for $520,000.

The mysterious winning bidder refused to pay, then accused the auction house of rigging the bids. After the winning bidder missed the final payment deadline this week, Mr McKenzie started to solicit offers globally. After attracting some media attention in China, the vase was sold to a buyer in China.

And after all that, Mr McKenzie admits it might not even be the real deal.

“Using research we were able to work out the artist but in the catalogue we said ‘attributed to’, and we really have to do that because 95 per cent or so of Chinese porcelain will be copied,” he said. “No one knows ... even the big firms in the UK will often, particularly for pieces of porcelain, say ‘attributed to’.

“The owners wanted it sold and it’s very hard for us to guarantee authenticity on it but, by putting ‘attributed to’, we don’t have to guarantee. If we said ‘by the artist Wang Dafun’ then we’re sort of guaranteeing authenticity which is a very risky thing for us to do because after it’s sold and we pay out the vendor, down the track the buyer could say, ‘Well hang on, we’ve had scholarly opinion that says this is a very good copy I want my half million dollars back’.”

The market for Chinese antiques has exploded as the newly wealthy Chinese upper class buy up the country’s cultural heritage, much of which was plundered by imperial forces in the 19th and 20th centuries.

It is unusual to find pieces of this value in Australia. The Perth vase was acquired by the family’s grandfather who’d spent time in China in the early 20th century. Mr McKenzie, helped by a China expert on his staff at McKenzies Auctioneers Valuers and Exhibitions in Claremont, determined the vase was likely the work of Chinese Wang Dafun, part of The Eight Friends of Zhushan, a group of porcelain painters active during the Republic of China period before World War II.

Work from this group has soared in value in recent years. Mr McKenzie has previously sold pieces by other artists in the group for $150,000 and $250,000. So after determining the vase was likely the work of Wang Dafun, he promoted the vase to international buyers. It was listed at selling for between $2500 to $5000, but Mr McKenzie said he knew the vase would sell for much, much more.

“Those estimates are not valuations,” he said. “It’s an indicator of the reserve ...”

Despite the vase selling for less than what was bid at auction, it still fetched a very good price, Mr McKenzie said. “It was on a table just like that!” he said pointing to a side table in his showroom. “A cat could’ve knocked it over!”