A Buddhist sculpture bought at a garage sale for approximately $75–100 later became the centre of a major Sotheby’s auction result, selling for $2.06 million in New York. The gilt-bronze figure depicts Cintamanicakra Avalokiteshvara, a form of the Chinese Buddhist deity Avalokiteshvara, also known as Guanyin. According to Sotheby's, the work dates to the late Tang Dynasty / Five Dynasties, and its seller said they had purchased it about 20 years earlier before taking it to an Antiques Roadshow appraisal event in St. Louis. The sculpture entered Sotheby’s Important Chinese Art auction with a pre-sale estimate of $60,000–80,000.
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