‘Giddy’ Antiques Roadshow expert can’t wait to tell guest value of painting

An Antiques Roadshow expert was left so “giddy” when a woman brought a painting to him to be valued that he couldn’t wait to tell her its price.

Jad Attal may be a furniture expert — but it was a painting that left him grinning from ear to ear in what has now been described as the “best moment of 2023” on the PBS version of the show. The appraiser was delighted to be greeted by a woman at Filoli Historic House & Garden, who had inherited a painting from her dad, who had purchased it for $125 (£98) back in the 70s.

Eager to get to know it’s true value, she explained: “I was bequeathed it from my father. My father bought this some time in the. I think it was the early to mid 70s. I was like 10.

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“My dad bought this from Gustav Baumann’s widow when she had come to Colorado State University. She was selling some of his work to raise money selling from the estate, and this one always stopped him.”

The expert, who was visibly excited by the piece, said it wasn’t “hard to see why” her dad picked that one. He added: “The colours on this are absolutely beautiful. The artist is Gustav Baumann. He was actually born in Germany and came over to the States as a child with his family and was living in the Midwest.

“He trained in Chicago and worked in Indiana, and it wasn’t until about 1918 that he made his way down to New Mexico. He was intending to go to Taos. He got to Taos and he thought it was too busy.

“A friend persuaded him to move on to Santa Fe. So he gets to Santa Fe and basically plants himself there and his imagery has become synonymous with the southwest. And this you can see, of course, is titled rain in the mountains. This is from the fourth edition.

“He printed four editions of this subject over a 30 year period, starting in 1926, and completing with this fourth and final edition in 1956. And what’s great about this, too, is the way that the rain is coming down.

“That’s just such a great talent to be able to pull that off by cutting a wood block. The appreciation for these, like I said, the past couple of decades has just increased exponentially.”

The explanation left the woman feeling “nervous” about hearing the value — but she received a pleasant surprise when he declared it was worth $50,000 (£39,000). She said: “That is so much more than I thought. I’m going to have to do something.”

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A clip of the episode has since been shared to TikTok gaining more than 11,000 likes. In the caption, the PBS team said: “You know you’ve got something good when the appraiser is as giddy as the owner!”

TikTok users were left stunned by the clip as they took to the comments baffled by a print being worth so much money. One user said: “For a print?! Wow.”

Another added: “For a print?” A third commented: “I always thought prints weren’t worth the effort. Why are some valuable and most not?” Meanwhile, a fourth wrote: “Love this artist!”

Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk