Antiques Roadshow US guest jokes she’ll keep valuable watercolour painting ‘away from dog'
An Antiques Roadshow US guest was lost for words after she was told of the real value of her late grandmother's watercolour painting.
Antiques Roadshow USA guest in tears at painting's value
Antiques Roadshow US saw a valuable painting bring its owner to tears, joking she would need to keep it “away from my dog” after discovering its true worth.
The guest explained on the PBS series that the painting had been given to her after her grandmother passed away who received the artwork from her dad when she was 19 in the 1940s.
“Not sure if it’s a print or a painting but when I got it, there was a mosquito underneath the glass," she said
“So I took it out to the front yard and opened it up to get the mosquito out so I could take it with me to college and then it scared me a little and I closed it back up immediately because it looked like it might be real.”
She confirmed on Antiques Roadshow US that it had been appraised twice before, once in 1998 for $200 and a second time in 2004 for $250.
Read more: Antiques Roadshow sisters in tears after finding out value of mum's Tiffany lamp
The painting, which is of a Native American tribe, was created by artist Henry Farny who had associations with the Sioux tribe who adopted him and gave him the cipher 'Long Boots'.
Expert Meredith Hilferty commented: “So that’s the artist Henry Francois Farny, he was born in France and came to Pennsylvania when he was about six years old and when he was living in Pennsylvania, he began a relationship with the Seneca Indians and that’s really where his fascination with the different tribes began.
“This piece is really interesting because it’s a dense group of figures which is very desirable in his work.
“He did, eventually, spend a lot of time with the Sioux Indians, and they did adopt him and gave him the name ‘Long Boots’.
“This is really his most prolific time. 1890 is about when we start to see some of his very best paintings.
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She continued: “He represented the Native Americans in a very kind of peaceful, tranquil way, and you can see that in this painting.
“He didn’t ever really bring conflict into his work as some of the other artists from that time did, Charles Russell and Remington would show conflict with the Indians, where he really wanted to just show the Native Americans in their natural environment without too many other things happening besides the landscape around them.”
Meredith then gave the vital information that the guest had been waiting for, stating: “So if we were going to put this in an auction today, I would suggest an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.”
Clearly stunned, the guest was lost for words and kept shielding her face as tears streamed down her cheeks.
She said: “So I can’t hang it up. Oh my God. That’s so much. I don’t even know what to say.”
“Should I have left the mosquito in the back?”
Meredith replied: “It’s actually not a bad idea that you took the bug out. Ultimately, we would like for a conservator to do that.
“But the bug could have continued to decay and caused a stain or something that you could’ve probably had a conservator work on.
“But no it’s good that the bug wasn’t there anymore.”
Still unsure of what to say, the guest laughed: “Oh jeez. Oh my goodness. So I’ll keep it away from my dog.”
Antiques Roadshow US is available to watch on PBS.