A seller is quids in after a wicker chair they picked up in a junk shop for just £5 sold at auction for £16,000.
The shopper found the piece of furniture in Brighton, East Sussex, but didn’t realise it had an unusual - and very valuable - design.
She got in touch with a valuer who told her it dated from an early 20th century avant-garde art school in Vienna, Austria.
The sought-after chair was designed by esteemed Austrian painter Koloman Moser in 1902.
Moser was one of the foremost artists of the Vienna Secession movement, which rejected traditional artistic styles.
The chair was presented for sale at Sworders auctioneers of Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex.
It was bought by an Austrian dealer on the telephone for £16,250.
John Black, a specialist at Sworders who first valued the piece, said: "We are delighted with the sale price and are particularly pleased to know it will be going back to Austria.
"The seller was also thrilled and I think they needed to sit down upon being told how much it sold for."
Mr Black added: "The vendor had done some research but was unsure if the attribution was correct, so I decided the best course of action would be to speak to Dr Christian Witt-D rring, a specialist on the Vienna Secession movement.
"He confirmed the attribution and praised this example for the dignity of its original condition.
"The chair is a prime example of the artistic achievements of the Vienna Secession movement.
"Designed in 1902 by Koloman Moser, a teacher at the Vienna School of Applied Arts, it is a modern reinterpretation of a traditional 18th century ladder-back chair.
"The lone decorative element is the chequerboard-like grid of the webbing on the seat and the back of the chair.
"The Vienna School of Applied Arts provided modern designs for the wickerwork factory of Prag-Rudniker.
"In 1903 the magazine Das Interieur published a whole series of new designs, including this chair, that was followed in 1904 by a whole article devoted to modern Austrian wicker furniture in the influential UK publication The Studio. "
In more auction news, a man who collected whisky despite not even liking the drink recently sold his set of 4,000 miniature bottles for £30,000.
Brian Marshall amassed the impressive collection over 40 years and has sourced bottles from countries worldwide including America, Iraq, Uruguay and Australia.
A woman was also left amazed after a globe she purchased for £150 at an antiques fair sold for £116,000 when it went under the hammer.
