Value of Chinese vases unknown

The value of two large Chinese porcelain vases at the President's Palace in Valletta remains unknown as an indicative price given by an expert, and reported in The Times yesterday, actually referred to rarer artefacts.

Chinese porcelain expert Qin Dashu last week inspected three sets of vases at the palace's state rooms and shed light on their origin and age. He commented that one of the sets, made of two 17th century large vases, was rare due to the size.

"The vase which the professor mentioned, valued at £14 million (about €15 million) in an auction, is a much earlier one from an official kiln which produced objects only for the imperial court," the China Cultural Centre in Valletta clarified yesterday.

"The vases in the palace are not from the official kiln. In terms of the ancient Chinese porcelain, there is a big difference between objects from official and non-official kilns," the centre said.

When contacted, Heritage Malta said that estimating the value of the palaces' vases was not a clear-cut mathematical formula. Values were not a one-size-fits-all formula when qualifying cultural heritage and, therefore, one could not conclude that the vases at the palace were each worth £14 million, or £28 million in total, a spokesman said.

The Chinese vases at the palace have been the subject of study for at least the past two years and featured in an exhibition held at Fort St Angelo last year.