Ming Vase and il banditore italiano (The Italian Auctioneer)
You don’t have to understand Italian to follow the auctioneer: A Chinese Ming Vase is up for auction. The bidding opens at a half-million Euros. Bidding is brisk and each bidder is clearly identified as each raises the bid by 100,000 Euros. (The exchange rate at auction time was 1 Euro = $1.43.) Within seconds,