--- title: Chinese Ming Dynasty Wine Cup Sells at Auction for $36 Million description: The Ming Dynasty-era "chicken cup" just sold at a Sotheby's auction for $36 million. Only 19 of the cups were ever made. canonical: https://time.com/53590/this-wine-cup-is-worth-36-million/ author: Kyle Chayka article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-08T16:01:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:08:37.826Z og:title: Somebody Just Bought This Wine Cup for $36 Million og:description: Don’t tip it over! og:url: https://time.com/53590/this-wine-cup-is-worth-36-million/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28cf966f28768063/6986897f36176072d690b5aa/winecup.png?branch=production&width=540&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 540 og:image:height: 304 og:image:alt: winecup og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Somebody Just Bought This Wine Cup for $36 Million twitter:description: Don’t tip it over! twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28cf966f28768063/6986897f36176072d690b5aa/winecup.png?branch=production&width=540&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Wine Cup Is Worth $36 Million > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Apr 8, 2014 4:01 PM UTC  Global News Channel / YouTube by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Apr 8, 2014 4:01 PM UTC The most expensive bottle wine ever sold: $156,450 for a Bordeaux owned by Thomas Jefferson. The most paid for a wine glass? [$36 million](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/04/08/ming-dynasty-chicken-cup/7456759/). A Ming Dynasty porcelain wine cup just sold for that staggering price at a Sotheby’s auction in Shanghai. The sale is another watershed moment in the booming market for Chinese antiquities, which has grown exponentially as China’s wealthy upper class gains a taste for collecting their country’s heritage. And the Ming Dynasty wine cup deserves the price. It’s one of China’s iconic cultural treasures. Just 19 of the small vessels (it’s less than four inches wide) [were made](http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1466550/ming-era-wine-chicken-cup-could-fetch-record-price-hk300m) under the Ming Dynasty’s Chenghua Emperor, who reigned from 1465 to 1487\. Of those, only four are owned by collectors; the remainder are in museums. “This is really the holy grail when it comes to Chinese art,” Sotheby’s deputy chairman for Asia told [_USA Today_](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/04/08/ming-dynasty-chicken-cup/7456759/). The vessel is also called the “chicken cup” for its miniature paintings of roosters and hens. (We like to think it’s also because only a chicken would drink that small a glass of wine.) The winning bidder was Liu Yiqian, who founded the Long Museum in Shanghai to hold his collection. 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