You might expect old paintings to be worth money. But why is
a rickety metal mobile worth more than your house?
And who would pay more for an old blanket than a new yacht? Keep watching to find out!
A U.S. Air Force vet appeared on the June 1, 2019 episode of "Antiques Roadshow" in Fargo,
North Dakota with a Rolex watch he first purchased while stationed in Thailand in the 1970s.
It cost him $345.97, the equivalent of a month's salary at the time.
He said,
"I had other watches I wore and I just put this one into a safety deposit box.
It stayed there for 30 or 40 years. I only took it out, like, two or three times to look at it,
and that was about the extent of it before I brought it here."
It's worth a lot more than three hundred bucks now, though. The appraiser said,
"It's one of the rarest Paul Newman models,
and in this condition, I don't think there's a better one in the world."
The auction value? $500,000 to $700,000.
The owner of a century-old painting brought it to
a San Diego recording of "Antiques Roadshow," which aired on June 12,
2010. The woman explained that the piece of art had been passed down through her family:
"This lady is my grandmother [...] And the painting was painted by
Robert Henri [...] a friend of the family."
The first appraiser the owner took it to when she
inherited the painting in the 1960s didn't think it was impressive.
"They said it was not worth much more than Grandpa paid for it, and Grandpa paid $4,500.
And the reason it's not worth much more is because it's a family portrait,
and museums wouldn't want it and no one else would want it."
Still, times and tastes change, especially in the art world, which is why you should always
get your valuables appraised regularly. While the insurance value given on the show in 2010
was $250,000 to $300,000, a 2016 update increased that to $500,000 to $700,000.
The owner of the James Henry Beard painting "The Illustrious Guest" brought it to a
Dallas, Texas taping of "Antiques Roadshow," which aired on June 28,
2008. Painted in 1847, it depicts Henry Clay, who the appraiser calls, quote,
"[the] most recognizable politician of the 19th century next to Abraham Lincoln."
The work had been acquired by the owner's three-times great-grandfather,
and for a long time the family thought it was by a completely different artist.
The appraiser gave it an auction value of $300,000 to $500,000, which was updated in
2020 to $600,000 to $800,000. He said the painting was so good, quote, "[it] could hang in a museum."
The owner took him at his word, and soon the painting was on a long-term loan to
the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth after the museum's curator,
Rebecca Lawton, saw the painting on "Antiques Roadshow." She said,
"It is a terrific genre subject that combines fact with fiction. The setting is accurate,
as Clay, a veteran campaigner, certainly would have stopped at
country taverns to solicit votes during the 1844 presidential election [...] This is a
perfect picture of life in antebellum America and a wonderful rediscovery."
The owner of an 1896 Frederic Remington portrait of his great-grandfather didn't immediately hit
it off with the appraiser at the Birmingham, Alabama taping of "Antiques Roadshow" which
aired on June 21, 2014. As the appraiser explained once the cameras were rolling,
"I've never reprimanded a guest for manhandling a painting before."
"I'm glad you're taking care of my painting!" "I'm trying to!"
Fortunately, others in the owner's family were not so sloppy, as the appraiser noted,
"Your family's taken very good care of it for a long time. It also comes with
this letter from Remington to your great-grandfather.
They talk about their adventures that they had. Really, really wonderful."
The appraiser gave the picture/letter combo a shocking auction value of $600,000 to $800,000.
And a big twist happened after the episode aired. Laura Foster, the director of the Remington Art
Museum, discovered that the owner's family had gotten the painting from the museum in a trade,
trading two other Remingtons for the portrait of their ancestor.
One problem: the two paintings they traded to the museum both turned out to be fakes!
Still, it was unintentional, as the family thought they were real. Foster said,
"I just want to say that everybody meant well. In 1938, the world was full of fake Remingtons.
Remington has always been a great target for fakes and forgeries."
If you tuned in to the July 10, 2010 episode of "Antiques Roadshow" you might have wondered why
a woman brought in a bent wire clothes hanger that she'd hung some guitar picks off of.
Well, philistine, you should know that is art. Very expensive and famous art, it turns out.
The owner explained that her family had acquired the piece from the artist,
Alexander Calder himself, after her aunt essentially traded a pillow for it.
"She had done a needlepoint pillow of one of Calder's works. And he was astounded. He'd
never seen one like that before. And so she gave it to him, and a couple of days later,
somebody appeared at the doorway, and he had given her this mobile as a thank-you for the pillow."
The appraiser gave the mobile a wide estimate of $400,000 to $1 million,
with the low end being an auction value and the million mark being a retail price.
The Raleigh, North Carolina episode that aired on June 27, 2009 is a legendary one in "Antiques
Roadshow" history. A woman brought in a collection of decorative jade objects from the 1700s,
which her father had purchased when he was stationed in China in the 1930s and '40s.
Once all the pieces were added up, the estimate shocked her.
"a total amount of between seven hundred and ten
thousand to one million seventy thousand." "...DAMN!"
Major news outlets like Reuters covered the record-breaking valuation,
with executive producer Marsha Bemko telling them,
"For 13 years, we've been hoping to feature a million-dollar appraisal
on 'Antiques Roadshow;' it's been our 'Great White Whale.' We're thrilled that,
despite this year's slow economy, 'Roadshow' finally captured this elusive trophy."
Alas, things didn't quite pan out at auction due in part to the vagaries of the Chinese art market.
The pieces that were on "Antiques Roadshow" reportedly sold for
$494,615, while 30 additional pieces the owner had but hadn't brought on the show sold for $350,523,
so even combined, they barely hit the estimate.
It's always nice to see something a bit different on "Antiques Roadshow," especially when there's a
documented history and provenance behind it. So it was with an amazing collection
of what were basically the earliest type of baseball cards that appeared on the January 5,
2015 episode. The owner explained how they had come into her family a very long time ago,
"Back in 1871, my great-great-grandmother had a boarding house in Boston,
and she housed the Boston baseball team. Most of them had come from
Cincinnati Red Stockings and were among the first to be paid to play baseball."
The team had even written a letter to her great-great-grandmother,
which the appraiser especially loved, as it added some very personalized provenance.
It all added up to a treasure to remember.
"I would insure it for at least one million dollars"
"it is the greatest archive I have ever had at the Roadshow."
The collection of five cups an owner brought on the Tulsa, Oklahoma episode of "Antiques
Roadshow" that aired on July 23, 2011 were always going to be controversial.
That's because they were all made out of rhino horn. You might know rhinos as super endangered,
and that making things out of their horns is now illegal.
Given that these cups were carved around the year 1700, most places
allow them to be bought and sold, with certain restrictions. So the appraiser went for it.
"a conservative number would be between a million
and a million five hundred thousand dollars for this group." "Serious?"
Before the cups went to auction, though, China banned the import of items made from rhino horns.
That caused the market to crash, and as a result, only two of the five sold,
fetching a combined total of $329,000.
The painting of a stern looking man in a Mexican-style hat and poncho that was
on the Corpus Christi, Texas episode that aired August 4,
2012 might not have seemed like much at first. At least not to the family. The owner said that
though the family kept the painting for decades, they also kept it kind of hidden.
"The painting for some time was in bad condition, and it was hanging behind a door"
"If that door was open, then you couldn't see the painting."
That hiding place proved to be exceptionally good,
because the painting turned out to be a masterpiece by artist Diego Rivera that
art historians spent more than 50 years looking for. As the appraiser explained,
"There are two extraordinarily intriguing words in an artists' catalogue of paintings. And those are:
whereabouts unknown. The research that we found in the authentication process of it is that it
had been missing. In the records in Mexico City, it was unknown. Where's the painting?"
Then she delivered the verdict.
"I would be putting a retail estimate on the piece of between eight hundred thousand dollars
and a million dollars."
That has since been updated to $1.2 to $2.2 million.
Obviously realizing the cultural importance of the painting,
the owner arranged for it to be on permanent loan to the San Antonio Museum of Art.
The famous Navajo blanket episode of "Antiques Roadshow" was filmed in Tucson,
Arizona and aired on June 9, 2001. The owner of the beautiful blanket told the appraiser,
"I don't know an awful lot about it, except that it was given by Kit Carson– who I'm sure
everybody knows, and his history – given to the foster father of my grandmother."
The appraiser was interested in the Kit Carson connection, but since the owner had no proof
of it, at least at that time, it couldn't really be included in the theoretical value.
It didn't much matter. The owner got his first inkling the blanket
was special when the appraiser called it a, quote, "national treasure," and said,
"When you walked in with this, I just about died."
After asking whether the owner was a wealthy man, the appraiser said,
"On a really bad day, this textile would be worth
$350,000. On a good day, it's about a half a million dollars."
Updates over the past two decades have increased that number to $1.5 to $2 million.
The name Patek Philippe automatically means lots of dollar signs. So the
watch an owner brought to the St. Paul, Minnesota episode that aired on June 26,
2004, was always going to have an impressive value. But even then, this one surpassed all
expectations. The owner explained how it came to be in his family,
"This watch was handed down from my great-grandfather. He was the owner
of the 'St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch' back in 1914, when he received this watch.
And it was handed down from him to my father, and then he gave it to me."
While Artful Living reports the owner was hoping it was worth maybe $50,000,
the appraiser had a heck of a surprise for him:
"this watch, at auction, I suspect would bring close to a quarter million dollars." "no…"
But this valuation would actually
end up being far too low, as the watch was later discovered to be one of a kind.
The owner decided to sell the watch, and in 2006, it sold in a Sotheby's auction for $1,531,760.
"That watch today, we estimate is worth at least two, possibly three million dollars."
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