Collector Makes $500K Profit Selling $20 Teapot To Met: Reports

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An antiques collector from the British midlands made the deal of a lifetime with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a British auction house announced.

The Met paid $520,000 at auction to buy a teapot from the English collector who paid only $20 for the item, according to Salisbury-based auctioneers Woolley & Wallis. The collector, who was not named, spotted the teapot at an antiques fair and figured it might have some hidden value, Artnet News first reported.

When the teapot was taken to auction house , appraisers discovered that the collector had unearthed a hidden gem, Woolley & Wallis announced in a press release. The antiques collector initially thought the teapot was made by British company Iselworth, but it turns out the item was crafted by South Carolina-based John Bartlam, the auction company said.

Bartlam left England around 1763 to set up a business in the colonies, according to Woolley & Wallis. The teapot is only the seventh piece of Bartlam porcelain to be unearthed, the auction house said.

"He thought it was something that may possibly be sellable at auction," Tamzin Corbett of Woolley & Wallis told Artnet News. "It’s only when he brought it to our specialist at Woolley & Wallis and she conducted further research on it that its value came to light."

The final sales price was driven up to $520,000 due to a bidding war between The Met and an unknown private collector from the United States. Before the auction, the teapot's opening price was set at $13,970, according to auction house Woolley & Wallis.

Check out a video of the sale below:

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