AN Antiques Roadshow guest was left gobsmacked by the value of a painting that was bought for 50p.
A recent episode of the BBC show visited Bishop’s Palace in Somerset, and saw expert Lisa Lloyd meet a lady who had brought in a very colourful piece of artwork.
She said: “It really is a riot of colour, isn’t it? And it just screams Italian design from the 1970s 1980s.
“It’s a screenprint, so each of these colours has to be printed individually, the way it’s actually cut out and the way it’s mounted in the perspex frame obviously really sort of adds to that.”
She then asked the lady about how it came to be in her possession and she said: “It came to me about two years ago, mum bought it in a garden fete for 50p.”
She added with a chuckle: “I went round to see her and thought, if I’m honest, I wondered what on earth she’d bought!
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“But she said she thought it would look wonderful in my house so I duly took it home and she’s right, it does look really good.”
Lisa told her it was by Studio Alchimia, which is Italian for alchemy.
She said: “Very avant-garde design movement that was founded in 1976 by Alessandro Guerriero.
“[They were] Furniture designers, artists that did experimental videos, [they did] theatre and theatre design.”
The camera then showed a close up of the back of the piece, and Lisa said: “There’s a little label on the back, which says this is a limited edition number 92 out of 208.
“We don’t really see an awful lot of their work in the UK.
“I would think that if this were included in an auction you’ll probably be looking at a pre-sale estimate of around five to 700 pounds for it.”
The guest was shocked and Lisa told her: “So, quite a good profit on your mum’s 50p.”
Antiques Roadshow airs on BBC One and is available on BBC iPlayer.
