What appeared to be a regular bowl that a New York family bought from a garage sale for $3 ended up being sold at an auction for $2.22 million on Tuesday.

The bowl turned out to be 1,000 years old and from the Northern Song Dynasty of China, according to The Associated Press.

"At the time, the purchaser had no idea that they had happened upon a 1000-year-old treasure," said Cecilia Leung of Sotheby's auction house in New York.

After battling between four other bidders, London dealer Giuseppe Eskenazi took home the rare bowl for $2,225,000. He is regarded as one of the world’s foremost dealers of Oriental art, according to NBC.

The bowl was part of the opening session of Sotheby's fine Chinese ceramics and works of art auction. Leung said the previous owner had the bowl, which is white and five inches in diameter, displayed in the living room for several years. When the owner was curious about the origins of the bowl, the owner had it assessed by Sotheby's.

Pre-sale estimates valued the bowl between $200,000 and $300,000. The original owner purchased the bowl at a tag sale in 2007.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tags
Rare