Vase bought at Goodwill for $3.99 sells for more than $100,000

Jessica Vincent made her way in June through a busy Goodwill thrift store in Hanover County, Va., passing VCRS, lamps and glassware commonly sold at bigbox retailers. Nothing really caught her eye until she saw an iridescent glass vase.

After doing a lap around the store, she returned to the bottle-shaped vase with red and green swirls. 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.

She had a feeling it might be worth something.

“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.”

There was no price on the vase. Vincent, 43, told herself she’d pay $8.99 and no more. When the cashier rang her up, it was $3.99.

When she returned home from the Goodwill thrift store, she joined Facebook groups for glass identification to learn more about the vase. Some members told her it looked like it was designed by Carlo Scarpa, a renowned Italian architect, and they referred her to Wright Auction House.

She sent photos, and almost right away Richard Wright, president of the auction house, asked if he could call. “The minute I saw the photos I had a really good feeling,” he said.

On Wednesday, the vase was auctioned for $107,100 to an unidentified private art collector in Europe. About $83,500 went to Vincent, and about $23,600 went to Wright Auction House.

Specialists who evaluated the piece determined it was part of the “Pennellate” series that Scarpa designed in the 1940s.

It’s unclear how many vases of this kind were made, Wright said. He said he was most impressed with the pristine condition of the glass.

“If it had a chip — even a small chip — it would have probably sold for under $10,000,” he said. “This was like a winning lottery ticket.”

It was unclear how the vase got to the Goodwill store. A representative at Goodwill Industries could not immediately be reached Sunday.

Specialists from Wright Auction House initially estimated that the vase could fetch $30,000 to $50,000. Despite its monetary value, Vincent said she knew she didn’t want to keep it.

“When I did learn how rare they are and the value that it could be, it made me sort of nervous to have it because anything could happen to it,” she said. “When you have a piece so expensive it makes you think, ‘ What if?’ ”