Global interest propels renewed jade sales

For thousands of years art lovers have been fascinated by jade. Even today is remains one of the world's most precious stones. 

And it's still traded on markets around the world.

Nick Harper reports on a jade sale in New York that's proving the stone's popularity is no longer limited to China.

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TAKE VO
It's been bought and sold for thousands of years, but jade hasn't lost its luster.
This personal collection of 136 artifacts was pieced together over 40 years.
And now the owner has passed it on to a Oriental auction gallery in New York, J.J. Lally and Company. Here's the gallery owner James Lally.

SOT - Lally
"He was buying at auction, he was buying privately, he was buying in Japan, he was buying in New York, he was buying in Europe, and it was this great passion. But as very often happens the collecting passion doesn't transmit through the family in the same way."

TAKE VO
This treasure trove dates back over 6000 years, some of the oldest pieces coming from the neolithic period.
Most of these artifacts survived because they were buried.
Items like ornamental pendants, ceremonial daggers, and yabi [PRON: Yah-Bee] - a toothed-disc thought to be a talisman to help the dead beyond the grave.


SOT - Lally
The Yabi, it's Chinese, loosely translated, toothed-disc. So it's a disc with teeth pointing out in a spiral shape around the edge of the circular disc with a hole in the center. So jade became the chosen material for ornament and status objects. People want what they can not have and they particularly chose to have pure white jades which are hard to find, and the more common colors are less sought after and are made into more simple shapes."

TAKE VO
Lark Mason runs an online auction site.

upsound-  "This is a tapir, but this is based on an ancient bronze form from the Western Zhou period."

TAKE VO
He's seen growing international interest in Asian antiques. And says ongoing demand, not just China, has kept jade in fashion, and fueled a rise in prices.

SOT - Mason
"Jade has this deep resonance within Chinese culture. And by extension it's become valuable and esteemed within other cultures that have dealt with China. So there are plenty of people who have no real connection with China that understand this is a special type of stone."

TAKE VO
Of course the internet has simplified the ancient global trade routes, meaning western buyers now have easier access to Chinese history.
And aesthetics aside, collecting can be costly.
This two-thousand-year old cup is expected to sell for around $2m dollars.
Proving that jade is just as highly prized in this millennia as in ones gone by.

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