Buddha statue bought for just over SEK 20 sells for SEK 2.44 million

A tiny Buddha statue bought for just over SEK 20 at a Swedish flea market in the 1980s has turned into a multimillion-kronor discovery after experts identified it as a rare work from China’s Ming dynasty. The gilt-bronze statue of Shakyamuni Buddha, which had spent decades in a private Swedish home, fetched a final price of SEK 2,437,500 at Stockholms Auktionsverk’s Asian Fine Art Sale on December 11, 2025. The amount is more than 120,000 times the original purchase price of just over SEK 20.The sculpture was bought at a flea market in Uppsala by the eventual seller, who purchased it for its appearance without initially knowing its historical or artistic significance.