The cheap urn a British surgeon bought for his kitchen turned out to be a rare Chinese artifact

In the 1980s, a British surgeon purchased a royal blue vase for a few hundred pounds and displayed it in his kitchen. Little did he know that the object was a rare Chinese artifact—and that it could be worth a thousand times what he paid.
How much more, exactly, we may find out soon. The vase is set to hit the block at the Newbury, England-based auction house Dreweatts later this month, where it’s estimated to sell for £100,000–150,000 ($125,000–185,000).