She bought a vase at Goodwill for $5, then sold it at auction for $143K

When Jessica Vincent spotted a large, candy-cane coloured vase on a Goodwill store shelf, it was love at first sight.

But she had no idea the thrift store vase she bought for $3.99 US ($5.34 Cdn) was, in fact, a rare Italian masterpiece that would eventually sell at auction for $107,100 US ($143,370 Cdn).

“It was unbelievable to see the number go up and up. I had all of the emotions in that moment. I had tears in my eyes. I was so excited. It’s just a life-changing amount of money for me,” Vincent, who raises polo ponies on a Virginia farm, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

“It’s not that I was going out seeking … something really valuable. I just went with what I loved and I picked up what I loved, and it just really worked out in my favour in such a beautiful way.”

‘It was just so beautiful’

Vincent, an avid thrifter, says she noticed the vase almost as soon as she walked in the doors of the Goodwill in Richmond, Va. 

“It was definitely the size and the colour that caught my eye,” she said of the 35.6-centimetre clear glass vase, with swirling stripes of teal and red. “I couldn’t get very close to it at first. There were so many people in the store.”

Once she got her hands on it, she knew she’d found a gem. What appeared at first glance to be painted brushstrokes was, in fact, a pattern of colours swirling inside the glass. 

“It was just so beautiful,” she said. “It was just such a quality. Like, I could feel it. It was heavy. I knew it was blown. The bottom was polished and finished very nicely.”

Then she saw the “Murano Italia” marking, indicating it was made from Venetian glass on the island of Murano. She figured it must be worth at least $1,000.

“It did not have a tag. But when I took it to the register, the woman, you know, she took it and looked at it and she said, ‘$3.99’ And I was, like, ‘Great. Thank you,'” she said.

But there was another marking on the vase that she couldn’t quite make out. Out of curiosity, she posted a picture on a glass identification Facebook group, and then a Murano appreciation group.

The glass lovers quickly identified the other marking as Venini, an Italian glass-making company.

But not just any Venini. Vincent’s vase is from a rare collection of glassworks crafted by the renowned and eccentric Italian architect Carlo Scarpa in 1942.

“I was just floored. I was just like, ‘Oh my goodness,'” Vincent said.

Not a scratch on it

The Facebook group’s members directed Vincent to Wright auction house, which has history of selling fine Italian glass. 

“I knew right away that it was super special,” Richard Wright, the company’s founder, told CBC. “When she told me the story, I really just couldn’t believe it. You know, it was wonderful.”

The piece, he says, is from a Scarpa’s Pennellate collection, in which he added coloured opaque glass to the vase as it was being blown to evoke a sense of brushwork. 

“He is elevating a glass vase, which can be, you know, at its most basic expression, a rather humble piece. He’s playing with the idea of it being literally a work of art,” Wright said.

“As an artist can take brushstrokes on a canvas and turn it into a work of art, he is taking brushstrokes onto the glass. And, you know, so it’s quite poetic.”

According to the auction house’s biography of Scarpa, even his death was poetic. 

“He died from injuries after falling down a flight of concrete steps that he himself had designed in Sendai, Japan. However his death was not immediate — he lived for 10 days. While unable to speak, it is said that he could write, but only backwards, and that he spent his last days creating tiny illustrated books for his friends,” it reads.

“In the end he was buried in the standing position, wrapped in white muslin, in a quiet corner of the Brion-Vega Cemetery in San Vito d’Altivole, widely considered to be his ultimate architectural masterpiece.”

Wright says it’s incredible the vase made its way from 1940s Italy to a Virginia thrift shop in 2023.

“How such a valuable piece got separated from its sense of value and then got donated is, you know, kind of amazing,” he said.

“What’s more amazing is it gets through the Goodwill system without getting a scratch or a chip. I mean, if it had a chip, it would have been worth less than $10,000.”

What will she do with the money?

Once Vincent knew the vase’s true value, she knew she had to sell it.

“It needed to be in a collection where it could be sort of appreciated fully and completely in a way that I couldn’t do in my little 1930s farmhouse,” she said. “Plus, I needed the money really more than I needed a beautiful vase.”

She intends to use the money to make some much needed improvements to said farmhouse, which she is currently keeping warm with two space heaters.

“My dream is to get HVAC, like heating and cooling, and a dishwasher,” she said. “Even though it’s not a huge deal to most people, it’s a really big deal to me.”