One thrifter’s life changed forever after purchasing a $3.99 vase at Goodwill.
Jessica Vincent was shopping at a Virginia Goodwill when she spotted a glass-blown vase that she thought could be valuable. She purchased it and sought the advice of collectors in Facebook groups who directed her to the Wright auction house.
Specialists from the auction house came to see the vase in person, and determined that it was designed by a famous Italian architect Carlo Scarpa, who invented the technique of adding colored brush strokes during the glass-making process, Wright auction house founder Richard Wright explained to USA Today.
Vincent never imagined that it could be a rare piece of art worth over $100,000.
Courtesy of the Wright auction house | The rare Italian vase Jessica Vincent purchased at Goodwill with a $107,000 value.
“In the Italian glass world, Scarpa glass is sort of considered to be the very best. It’s its own collecting field in and of itself,” Wright told the outlet.
Following the assessment, the vase sold at auction to an unidentified private collector in Europe for $107,100, according to The New York Times. About $23,600 from the sale went to the Wright Auction House, while Vincent pocketed about $83,500.
“For me, it’s like winning the lottery really. It’s just an incredible thing,” Vincent told USA Today. “It’s super, super surreal. Even now, I’m still pinching myself.”
Wright predicted that the vase was purchased by a wealthy person in the 1940s before it ended up at Goodwill.
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“And somehow it does not get chipped or damaged or scratched,” he noted. “The odds of something this rare ending up at the thrift store, but then not getting bumped, bruised, damaged. It’s unbelievable.”
Since the discovery, the vase has been sold to an advanced Italian glass collector in Europe, but Wright said it’s likely to be donated to a museum.
Vincent plans to use the “life-changing amount of money” to restore an old farmhouse she recently purchased.
