The Telegraph reports on a Chinese bamboo brush pot offered to a charity shop in the UK that eventually sold for £360k at auction. The work of art has been identified as the 17th century artisan Gu Jue’s work:

Despite the bamboo being extensively cracked and the base and rim having been crudely repaired with glue, the item excited the Chinese market. There was furious bidding at Woolley and Wallis saleroom in Salisbury, Wilts, which oversaw the sale.

There are only two or three people in the world who have the skill to restore the carved pot. It is thought to depict the “Agreeable Life in a Land of Transcendents”, a poem, and shows the philosopher Laozi on his ox, sitting amidst 12 figures in various pursuits in a mountainous landscape beneath pine trees and beside a flowing river. The new owner is from Hong Kong.

Chinese art collectors scramble to buy battered pot from Bristol charity shop (Telegraph)