{"id":4431,"date":"2013-03-26T08:00:20","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T13:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/?p=4431"},"modified":"2013-03-21T10:54:13","modified_gmt":"2013-03-21T15:54:13","slug":"march-31-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/march-31-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"March 31, 2013–Treasure in Plain Sight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contributed by Sylvia Alloway, Granada Hills, CA<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Warm-up Question<\/h3>\n

Have you ever been wrong about someone? Have you ever rejected a person as odd, stupid, or untrustworthy and later discovered that you were mistaken? What was the situation? What happened?<\/p>\n

Treasure in Plain Sight<\/h3>\n

\"shutterstock_12168025edit\"<\/a>The white bowl with the pointy, leaf-like pattern shaped into it had sat on the mantle in a New York state home for several years. The family had paid three dollars for it at a tag sale. A belated curiosity about the trinket\u2019s origin led the family to an assessor and a big surprise. Their humble little bowl was 1,000-year-old Chinese treasure, an example of \u201cDing\u201d pottery from the Northern Song dynasty.<\/p>\n

Given to the famous auction house Sotheby\u2019s to sell, it was expected to fetch around $200,000. A bidding war among four art collectors resulted in a price ten times that much, $2.2 million.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Discussion Questions<\/h3>\n