Antiques Roadshow fans gobsmacked as £250k object receives devastating valuation

25 February 2024 , 11:17

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Antiques Roadshow fans gobsmacked as £250k object receives devastating valuation

An Antiques Roadshow guest had a shock after the valuation of their item was hundreds of thousands short of what they were expecting.

Antiques expert Ronnie Archer-Morgan delivered the devastating verdict when the show stopped at Nottingham's Wollation Hall, after he examined a figure from the Kota tribe in Gabon, with the current owner expecting a valuation in the region of £250,000 for the prized item. Unfortunately there was bad news for the owner as instead of hitting the heights of a six-figure valuation, they were told that it was worth a fraction of this at £150.

The antiques expert delivers a devastating valuation (BBC)

Still, not a bad return on the investment made as the owner revealed that they paid £1.50 for the item, 10 years ago. Ronnie joked on hearing this: "You really took a risk, didn't you?" The guest replied with their reasoning, saying: "Well, I was intrigued by the fact that it looked as if somebody had put a lot of work into making it."

An Antiques Roadshow guest was disappointed with the valuation of his item (BBC)

Ronnie inspected the statue before saying: "When you unwrapped this, my heart really skipped a beat because it's one of my favourite tribal African figures. This is a Kota reliquary guardian figure and they put these on the bones of their ancestors to protect them and they polished this metal. And in the 19th century, they were brass and copper, this is just copper, the brass and copper were like gold to them. They're so highly revered in the art world that they have one of these in the Metropolitan Museum in New York."

The object from a Gabon tribe could have been worth thousands (BBC)

The antique expert continued: "They're such iconic examples of African tribal art. They hammer the metal over the wood sculpture and then they chase the metal with these designs. And it's the geometric form of them that makes them so desirable, and they influenced the greatest modern artists of all time because at the beginning of modernism, they are very, very sought-after."

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Ronnie raised hopes of a big valuation when he revealed that one of these figures sold for £250,000 a few years ago but then he delivered a devastating blow. He said: "But unfortunately, this one is a very fine copy. It's slightly the wrong size. This was likely made around 1980 and one of this kind is probably worth about £150. It is 100 times more than you paid for it."

A decent upswing in value but not enough to change the owner's life.

James Brinsford