The Mazarin chest, an antique Japanese lacquer box, is considered an artistic treasure worth millions of dollars. But this masterpiece, elaborately crafted in the 1640s, spent years holding up a television.
Neatorama revisited the winding tale of the Mazarin chest, describing how the box built by Kaomi Nagashige travelled from Japan with another box like it, disappeared and reemerged in the home of a French engineer only this year.
The Mazarin chest passed through the hands of several private collectors over the years, according to the History Blog, but in 1941, it fell out of sight.
The Victoria & Albert Museum, which owns another chest by the same craftsman, searched for a trace of the antique for decades. As they discovered this summer, an engineer had bought it for about $150 in 1970, according to the Telegraph.
He used it as a television stand and then as a bar until his death this year, when it was discovered in his home only blocks away from the Victoria & Albert museum, the Telegraph reported.
The cedar wood and gold lacquer chest sold to The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam at auction this summer for 7.3 million euros ($9.6 million US).
That's a pricey TV stand.
"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
What a beautiful find.
A lovely thing in such wonderful condition.
I think that it's great that it has proved practical for so long and is still beautiful.
Roger
Hi Miguel,
Perhaps it is just as well that the owner of this "T.V. Stand did die this year." If he had found out how much this T.V. stand was really worth while he was still alive, chances are the shock would have killed him. This is also a good reason for people to have a little culture in their life. Imagine, as the museum that housed the other chest was not that far from where he lived, if he had just taken a stroll to the museum to enjoy looking at antigues, he may have spotted the other one and casually mention that he had one just like it.
GOD BLESS YOU
~Mike~
http://www.countryvalues65.com