A tiny porcelain cup dating back to the Ming Dynasty has fetched more than $40 million at an auction in Hong Kong, setting a new record for Chinese porcelain.
Sotheby's Nicholas Chow holds a "Chicken Cup" which sold for a record price. Photo: AFP
The "chicken cup" - so-called because it is decorated with a rooster and hen tending to their chicks - is 500 years old and was bought by a Shanghai collector.
Sotheby's deputy chairman for Asia Nicholas Chow said only 17 such cups existed, and it would be the only one in China.
"It has gone to an extraordinarily good home in Shanghai," Mr Chow said.
"It will be, when it returns, the only genuine chicken cup in the whole of China."
Buyer Liu Yiqian has an estimated fortune of $US900 million and is the 200th richest person in China, the BBC reports.
The cup is likely to be displayed in Liu's Long Museum in Shanghai, which he and his wife opened in 2012.
