When Jessica Vincent bought a vase at a Goodwill store in Richmond, Virginia, she had no idea it was designed by Carlo Scarpa, a renowned Italian architect.
This is the stuff that thrift store bargain hunting dreams are made of! Jessica Vincent shopped her way through a busy Goodwill thrift store in Richmond, passing by all the normal items you see everyday. Nothing really caught her eye until she saw an iridescent glass vase. She continued around the store but went back to the vase, reports the New York Times. It was then that she noticed a small “M” on the bottom that she believed stood for Murano, an island off Venice and the historical home of Italian glassware.
“I had a sense that it might be a $1,000 or $2,000 piece,” she said, adding, “but I had no clue how good it actually was until I did a little bit more research.” With no price on the vase, she told herself she would pay up to $8.99 for the vase. To her delight, it was only $3.99.
At the advice of a facebook group dedicated to identifying glassware, she was referred to Wright Auction House. In time, the vase was auctioned for $107,100 to an unidentified private art collector in Europe. Around $83,500 went to Ms. Vincent and with around $23,600 going to Wright Auction House.