Philbrook Museum had a Chinese vase in storage for a decade. It just sold for $14.5 million.

Philbrook plans to use the proceeds from this sale to fund the museum’s endowment for new acquisitions of art.

“This sale will provide us with a way to broaden our collection, to help us create an even greater impact on our community through the art we exhibit and the stories we tell with that art,” said Philbrook director Scott Stulen. “This one piece will potentially allow us to purchase hundreds of other works of art.”

The income from the sale would have a “transformative” effect on Philbrook’s ability to expand its various collections, he said.

“These funds will go into a restricted endowment so that the interest will be used only to purchase art,” Stulen said.

The vase, thought to have been made in the early 1700s at the order of the emperor Qianlong, had been valued earlier this year at between $9 million and $12 million. A previous appraisal, done by Christie’s in 2010, had put the value at $4 million.

Philbrook kept the vase in storage for more than a decade, but it had been on display at the museum previously.