An Antiques Roadshow guest was handed the devastating blow that a statue, previously thought to be worth around £250,000 was actually only worth £150. During the episode on Sunday, Fiona Bruce presented the show from Wollaton Hall in Nottingham.
But one figure, thought to have been from the Kota tribe from Gabon, south of Nigeria, was brought in by an excited member of the public. Hailed initially as 'iconic examples of African tribal art', the guest was then told that their figure was a copy and was slightly the wrong size.
The treasures brought to the BBC show’s group of antiques experts included a fire extinguisher cocktail shaker, a toy monkey popping out of a musical pineapple, as well as a pair of drawers belonging to Queen Victoria, the Mirror reports.
Antique expert Ronnie Archer-Morgan appeared on the BBC One show to give his verdict on the figure, of which authentic versions have sold for as much as £250. The expert was initially very excited at seeing the antique. He said: "When you unwrapped this, my heart really skipped a beat because it's one of my favourite tribal African figures."
The guest told Ronnie he previously bought the figure ten years ago at an Antiques Roadshow event in Cambridge. He said: "It was right among the junk and it cost me the grand total of £1.50.”
Ronnie joked: "You really took a risk, didn't you?" The guest said: "Well, I was intrigued by the fact that it looked as if somebody had put a lot of work into making it.
The antiquarian told how the figure appeared to be from the Kota tribe from Gabon. He said: "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.
"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."
Ronnie explained that a few years ago, one of the figures sold for £250,000. However, he added: "But unfortunately, this one is a very fine copy. It's slightly the wrong size.
"This was probably made in about 1980 and one like this is probably worth about £150. It is 100 times more than you paid for it."
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