A woman who stopped in to a charity shop to buy a raincoat on a wet day, and ended up buying a painting for £25, has been left stunned by its true value after appearing on the Antiques Roadshow. This weekend's episode of the BBC show was filmed at Powis Castle in Wales.
Items shared included a ventriloquist's dummy, a 300-year-old love token, a gold brooch in the shape of a bird, and an oil painting depicting Scottish islands, reports WalesOnline.
The oil painting left the woman who bought it at a charity shop for £25 shocked by its true value. Showing the piece, expert Grant Ford said: "This is such an immediate, fluid, colourful painting, I'd love to be able to paint just like this.
"It really is a confident, colourist painting, now, it's an oil on canvas and it's clearly signed lower right, Cunningham."
Asking the guest how she came to own it, she replied: "So I bought this painting 10 years ago, it's a Scottish scene, a peninsula on the west coast of Scotland and we'd all had a family holiday there.
"We were driving home, all the way back to Shropshire, and my children were only 10 and 12 and I realised the rain was coming down and I had no raincoat for the children, so I stopped at the nearest charity shop and went in to get a raincoat but I didn't get a raincoat, I got a painting."
"What a lovely story, gosh I wish I got there before you," Grant responded. John Cunningham was born in Lancashire but moved to Glasgow where he was a senior lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art.
Upon retiring he became a professional artist in 1985. Grant then asked: "You go into the charity shop for a raincoat, and you find a picture by John Cunningham, one of his favourite subjects, what did you pay for it?"
The guest explained she paid £25 for the painting 10 years ago, to which Grant replied: "I just think that's an amazing bit of luck because this is a very sought-after painting and actually holds quite a lot of value. I can confidently say it's worth £4,000 to £6,000."
"Oh wow, that's quite astonishing for £25, I'm glad I bought it," the delighted guest said, as Grant added: "You could have found a raincoat that day, luckily you found a brilliant painting."
