AN ANTIQUES Roadshow expert was left grinding his teeth after a guest had a VERY strange reaction to a huge valuation.
In a recent episode of the BBC show, expert Amin Jaffer was presented with two paintings by a female guest.
The two pieces of art were striking watercolours by K. H. Ara, and Amin said: “The artist Ara is one of the great modern painters of India and he’s part of a group known as the progressive artists’ group and they are a circle with really define modern India.”
He then explained how they had been hanging off the dockside in Mumbai and the lady replied: “Yes they were.
“My mum and dad bought them when they were on the way to the boat having been told to leave with a weeks’ notice.”
She told Amin that her mother had liked one and her father had preferred the other, adding: “They bought them, I don’t know how much for and rolled them up in two and put them onto the boat.
“They have been part of my life this whole time.”
Amin believed the paintings were from the 1940s and added that while others went on to great international fame, Ara did not.
He explained: “He lived close to the poverty line throughout his life, he had a few exhibitions in the 1940s and the 1950s, and he ceased to be engaged within the active art world. So these are quite early paintings.”
When he asked the guest if she had any idea how much they would be worth, she said she didn’t.
He then enlightened her, saying: “Well, I would say the landscape here is probably £5,000 to £7,000 and the one [of the woman] is between £8,000 to £12,000.”
Shocked, the guest replied: “”Oh crikey, wow. I’m stunned, I am shocked, I didn’t want them to be worth that much because it’s a bit of a responsibility, isn’t it?”
However she added: “But I am pleased I am learned so much about them.”
Antiques Roadshow is available on BBC iPlayer.
