Hotel and casino mogul Steve Wynn purchased four 18th-century Chinese porcelain vases at a London auction Thursday night to decorate his new resort in Macau for 8 million pounds ($12.8 million).

The four-foot tall decorative vases from the Jiaqing period (1796-1821), with Buddhist and Taoist emblems and embellished with 19th century gilded metal mounts, were offered from a private collection at Christie’s International’s “Exceptional’’ sale.

After the sale, Wynn Resorts Macau Ltd. announced that the lot was purchased for the new Cotai Resort Hotel scheduled to open in 2015.

“We are delighted to return works of this extraordinary quality to the city of Macau and the People’s Republic of China,” said Roger Thomas, executive vice president of Design for Wynn Design and Development.